Posted 16th September 2022
The SVUK Contract for Change programme is focused on developing a principles based approach to embedding social value into procurement, commissioning and contracting practice. Our volunteer led programme has relaunched in May of 2022.
The Steering Committee has now met twice, in May, and July. The Steering Committee most recently focused on reviewing the programme purpose, proposed solutions, and aimed for outcomes. This was informed by a survey sent out to members of the Contract for Change community. The programme aims to be as transparent as possible, and so all programme materials including minutes, actions and meeting presentations are published on the programme website here.
This has led to the updated Programme Overview and Structure which can be seen on the website here: Contract for Change Programme and can be downloaded HERE.
Working Groups:
The next step for the programme is to launch the agreed upon working groups which will be open to all who are interested in participating. There will be 4 key groups focusing on key areas as follows:
- Peer networking, practice sharing, and collaboration: connecting across sectors to share current practice, to – identify the enablers and constraints to embedding social value principles in procurement and make proposals to tackling these. The group will lead on conferences, events and sharing resources.
- Best practice, learning and capacity building: the group will focus on implement proposals from community to develop better practice, improving learning resources and build capacity , e.g developing and accrediting training; resources, guidance for suppliers and buyers and toolkit development
- Social Value practice confidence building: the group will focus on supporting the sector in building confidence in the growing practice, and to support embedding of standards of practice
- for the bids submitted for contracting
- of the procurement function
- Influencing policy and legislation: engage organisations and government to promote and embed social value principles based practice into procurement, commissioning and contracting.
The groups will initially focus on implementing the key programme action areas identified by the Steering Committee:
- Methodology and approach to be defined. This is key for best practice and case studies, and should be led by SVUK in collaboration with the Working Groups
- Case study bank / resource library. This is an imperative practical next step for the programme. There are some good examples of practice sharing that could be used as reference, e.g. NAO, WCC resource bank
- Develop guidance to support practice implementation, along with other capacity building support such as training, and professional practice accreditation
- Influence legislation and policy, but most importantly the guidance that surrounds policy and legislation, e.g. the Procurement Bill, National Procurement Strategy
There will be more information being sent out to all interested parties soon. If you are interested in hearing more and being involved, please do reach out to us via [email protected] or you can sign up through the Get Involved | Contract for Change page on the website.
Posted 16th September 2022