Procurement Policy

New 2019/2022 Joint Procurement Policy

South Ribble and Chorley Borough Councils have adopted a new 2019/22 Joint Procurement Policy.  The Joint Procurement Policy defines the framework for promoting effective and responsible procurement across both councils and includes a number of targets and actions to deliver the three Joint Procurement Priorities listed below.  The new policy is closely linked to the National Procurement Strategy themes of "Showing Leadership"," Behaving Commercially" and "Driving Community Benefits", which are seen as central to successful delivery.

Vision

Supporting the delivery of quality, cost effective services, and the Council's corporate priorities, through strong leadership, innovation, and a strategic, commercially aware approach to modern, best practice and socially responsible, compliant procurement processes.

Joint Procurement Priorities

• Procurement that shows strong Leadership, engages all stakeholders, delivering outcomes and complying with relevant rules both internal and external
• Procurement that exploits the benefits of technology, is market & commercially aware, harnesses innovation, is effectively managed and delivers sustained competitiveness & value for money
• Procurement that is inclusive, sustainable and socially responsible

Chorley Corporate Priorities

• An Ambitious Council that does more to meet the needs of its residents and the local area.
• Involving residents in improving their local area and equality of access for all. 
• A strong local economy.
• Clean, safe and healthy homes and communities

South Ribble Corporate Priorities

• An exemplary Council

• Thriving Communities

• A fair local economy that works for everyone

• Good homes, green spaces and healthy places

How will we achieve the Joint Procurement Priorities?

Priority:

Procurement that shows strong Leadership, engages all stakeholders, delivering outcomes and complying with relevant rules both internal and external

We will:

• Recognise the strategic importance of procurement, with councillors and senior managers effectively engaged with commercial and procurement issues.
• Work as a single team across the Councils and with external partners, designing and implementing solutions in high value/high risk projects.
• Deliver an efficient and effective joint procurement service which maximises efficiency for collaborative, compliant and best practice procurement.
• Work collaboratively internally and externally, taking advantage of framework agreements and collaborative opportunities where they offer best value, delivering efficiencies, timely solutions and reducing duplication.
• Effectively engage with procurement networks, keeping abreast of policy development, procurement best practice, frameworks, collaborative and any other procurement opportunities available.
• Maintain and publish procurement guidance documents.
• Develop a procurement training programme on the Councils' e-learning platform (by December 2019) Maintain 100% professionally qualified procurement employees as a total percentage of procurement employees

Priority:

Procurement that exploits the benefits of Technology, is market and commercially aware, harnesses innovation, is effectively managed and delivers sustained competitiveness and value for money

We will:

• Use appropriate e-procurement solutions in our procurement processes.
• Contribute to the regional review / procurement of the e-procurement portal.
• Develop, implement and maintain a simple contract management system / contracts register providing a central repository for all contracts with email reminders at key review stages (SRBC by June 2019, CBC by April 2020).
• Develop a robust management environment to ensure effective contracts and relationship management, minimising risk, managing delivery of outcomes and performance and ensuring competitiveness and effective control of cost over the life of the contract.
• Engage with strategic suppliers to improve performance, reduce cost, mitigate risk and harness innovation.
• Consider revenue generation opportunities with high value/ high profile acquisitions / services examined for creating commercial opportunities.
• Effectively manage strategic risk.
• Contribute to the achievement of the Councils' targets for efficiencies contributing to financial sustainability.

Policy:

Procurement that is inclusive, sustainable and socially responsible

We will:

• Remove barriers and improve access to our procurement opportunities for SME and VCFS suppliers.
• Minimise any environmental impact of the products and services we buy where possible through innovative value for money solutions.
• Gain maximum value from procurement through consideration and inclusion of economic, environmental and social value criteria in contracts where appropriate, balancing local needs, environmental and social value factors with delivering value for money.
• Continue to deliver PI targets for payments.
• Comply with the Social Value Act Develop and Implement a Social Value Policy by April 2020.
• Develop a reporting mechanism for local and/or regional spend by April 2019, and April 2020 for key contracts sub contracted spend.
• Record and measure, the number of procurement opportunities published through the Chest and seek to increase the number of bid(s) from local supplier(s).
• Adopt and comply with the Tyred Campaign, ensuring tyres on our public vehicles are not older than 10 yrs.