Manchester City Council

Ethical Procurement Task and Finish Group

Briefly describe the initiative/ project/ service

A member led Task and Finish Group to consider how ethical the Council’s current procurement policy was to identify any gaps or areas which required review. The Task and Finish Group was established by the Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee but membership was also drawn from the Chairs of all Scrutiny Committee’s. Membership invitations were also extended to members of Audit Committee and outside parties to the Group.

The ‘outside parties’ involved with the developement and producing the Council’s Ethical Procurement Policy incuded:
Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES)
Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) Procurement Hub
STAR Shared Procurement Service
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
GM Shared Service – Part of North West Commissioning Support Unit (NWCSU). NHS.
Manchester Metropolitan University
Association of Public Service Excellence

Why do you think it should win this award?

This is a good example of connected procurement with all parties working together positively which resulted in the delivery of an Ethical Procurement Policy.
The policy can be adopted by those involved with the project and other external parties. This group are also involved in promoting the Council’s Ethical Procurement Policy through a launch event amongst AGMA and potential contractors with the Council.

What are the key achievements?

The delivery of an Ethical Procurement Policy
Increasing Social Value weighting in tenders from 10% to 20% on all tenders
Introduction of Social Fund into tenders to help smaller businesses. This is the payment of a percentage of the contract value (where appropriate) into an MCC social fund to be available for tenderers to offer this as an alternative offers of social value ‘in kind’.
The work of this group and the resulting policy connects procurement to real outcomes in communities.