Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were made.

RESOLVED

that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 17 February 2022,

be received and approved as a correct record.

The Scrutiny Research Officer reminded Members that at the last Committee meeting during consideration of the Council’s annual budget and Corporate Plan 2021/22 progress update, interest had been shown regarding the requirements and benefits of Social Value and how this particular methodology was currently woven into the Council’s procurement processes.

To ensure Members were kept up to date with the concept, implementation and benefits of Social Value within the Council, a presentation was given to the Committee by Chris Clarke, the Council’s Procurement and Project Officer for Corporate Services and Transformation, who was welcomed to the meeting.

Social Value

In accordance with the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, the National Procurement Strategy and the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and Social Value Policy, officers currently delivered and earned social value through their procurement processes.

The Council’s Social Value Policy was approved mid 2020 and the Council was now starting to see real outcomes from its implementation. Current social and local economic value delivered from January 2021 to January 2022 stood at £184,677.89 with a committed value over the life of its procurement so far of £1,445,640.23.

The procurement, measurement, management and reporting of social value were currently administered through a national ‘Social Value Portal’ which provided Council’s with an intuitive, adaptable dashboard for collating the information. 

The recording and use of Social Value methodology enhanced and reinforced the following:

·       Legal Compliance with Social Value

·       Better Value for Money/Return on Investment

·       Increased local Employment Growth

·       Public Health and Wellbeing Benefits

·       Community Resilience

·       Improved Local Place

·       Joint Working around Commissioning and Procurement.

Nottingham City Council currently managed all the Council’s high-level procurement with a set of principles observed as follows:

·       Involving Stakeholders

·       Understanding Changes

·       Valuing the Things that Matter

·       Only including what is Material

·       Not Over-Claiming

·       Being Transparent

·       Verifying the Results

·       Being Responsive.

The framework for delivering excellence in measuring and reporting social value was known as The National TOMs which covered Themes, Outcomes and Measures. Evidence of meeting TOMs requirements was currently registered through the portal as procurement process progressed with regular feedback requirements needing to be met to audit the input accordingly.  Due to the fairly intensive nature of the process, a ‘lite’ version of the TOMs had been developed by the Council to evaluate lesser procurement values between £25k and £100k.

Themes

These are visionary social value areas for an organisation to look at.

Outcomes

These are the positive changes within communities an organisation wants to see.

Measures

These are quantifiable actions that organisations can take to deliver outcomes.

The procurement of goods and services for the Council tended to be a three-way process with Ashfield Commissioning officers firstly preparing invitation to tender documents with Nottingham City Council for any procurement over £25k.  Nottingham City Council then advertised for tenders with social value questions being included in the invitation to tender packs.  The Social Value Portal would then analyse the social value element and return their findings to Nottingham City Council who would then produce the final tender  ...  view the full minutes text for item OS.14

Committee Members were firstly advised that Scrutiny Panel A’s final recommendations in relation to the Selective Licensing Scheme review had all been accepted by Cabinet at its meeting on 29 March 2022 alongside the main report from the Housing Team regarding a 5-year renewal of the Council’s Selective Licensing Scheme for privately rented homes.  The Panel were to be congratulated for a good job done.

Secondly, an email would be forwarded to Members and officers of the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) in the next few weeks requesting suggestions for items for the 2022/23 Scrutiny Workplan.