Bath & North East Somerset Council is a finalist in the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2015/16.
The Council’s Corporate Procurement Team has been recognised in the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of the Year Award for its work with SMEs and supplier engagement.
Cllr David Bellotti, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Resources, said: “I would like to congratulate the team, which has worked very hard to put in place a series of new ways of working to ensure that the Council has a sustainable procurement policy that takes into account social value.
“This means looking beyond the price of individual contract and taking into account other benefits to the community, for example creating employment opportunities or reducing the impact on the environment by sourcing locally.”
New ways of working include:
- Bath & North East Somerset’s Local Food Strategy, which encourages the local procurement of food and catering services where possible.
- A Think Local Strategy, involving regular events, which encourages local suppliers to bid for contracts.
- The Council is also part of a procurement network for public sector organisations in the West of England (which includes the unitary authority areas of Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) called Partners in Procurement (PiP). The Council has supported an annual Supplying the Public Sector event aimed at SMEs in the West of England to provide them with greater procurement awareness.
- The team also works with the Bath branch of the Federation of Small Businesses to promote their approach which is then passed down to their members.
The winners will be revealed on 26th February at an awards’ ceremony at The Midland Hotel in Manchester.
Now in their 15th year, the National GO Awards are the benchmark by which progress in this multibillion-pound sector has been measured.