Toggle menu

Councillors and committees

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Sonia Stewart - Tel: 0191433 3045 - Email:  soniastewart@gateshead.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

CR54

Minutes pdf icon PDF 298 KB

The Committee is asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on  11 October 2021.

Minutes:

RESOLVED           -    That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2021 be agreed as a correct record.

CR55

Corporate Commissioning and Procurement Strategy 2021/22 - 2026/27 pdf icon PDF 260 KB

Report of the Strategic Director, Corporate Services and Governance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report seeking views on the draft Corporate Procurement Strategy and approval to consult on the strategy externally.

 

The current strategy was approved in February 2017 for a period of five years.  It is the intention that the new strategy for the next 5 years will align to the Council’s Thrive Agenda, the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, the Economic Strategy and the Climate Emergency Strategy.  It will also align to Community Wealth Building Principles and look at maximising the Gateshead £.

 

Procurement in Gateshead is the process of acquiring goods, services and works, to achieve the optimum combination of costs, benefits and management of risk, to meet the objectives of the Council.

 

Commissioning in Gateshead is a cycle of activity that begins by considering what evidence is telling us about our community, and then leads us to determine the needs of our local population and analyse what must be done to achieve the best possible outcomes within our available resources.

 

The Vision:

 

‘We will continue to provide first class, outcome focused services based on compliant commissioning and procurement activity that delivers value for money, maximises the Gateshead £, tackles inequality, helps to reduce our carbon footprint and support Gateshead people to thrive.

 

Our Values:

 

·        Integrity – we will always work with integrity – demonstrating fairness and respect every day in every way

·        Inclusive – we will be inclusive – One Council working together and engaging people to get better results and ensure equality of opportunity

·        Inspirational – will be inspirational – thinking creatively, being dynamic and motivating and empowering everyone to do the things that make a real difference for the people of Gateshead

 

Our behaviours:

 

Our behaviours will be evident in how we approach our work, how we treat others and how we expect to be treated, as well as how we work together.

 

·        We will always be positive, helpful and supportive in our approach

·        We will be professional and lead by example

·        We will work as a team and take personal responsibility for our actions

·        We will learn from our mistakes and celebrate our successes

·        We will embrace and promote equality

·        We will be flexible and adaptable to change

 

The strategy will be divided into the following four areas with actions for each of the areas.

 

·        Tackling inequality, supporting local communities and putting people at the heart of everything we do.

·        Investing in our local economy

·        Working together for a better and greener future

·        Delivering value for money and ensuring a sustainable Council.

 

It was noted that some of the strategy is quite aspirational and it was queried how all services would buy into this and how can this be used to influence the SEND agenda, for example parents of children with SEND who wish their children to stay in the Borough and are having to travel out of borough.

 

It was noted that commissioning is done on a regional basis for certain contracts agreed under the NEPO framework.  It was noted that we are  ...  view the full minutes text for item CR55

CR56

A New Approach to Social Value pdf icon PDF 179 KB

Report of the Strategic Director, Corporate Services and Governance

Minutes:

The Committee were presented with a report and presentation to update them and provide an opportunity for the new approach to Social Value that is being developed.

 

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires all Contracting Authorities to consider social value criteria for inclusion in their commission and procurement activities and specifically in respect of contracts above the Public Contracts Regulations threshold.  Contracting Authorities should consider not only how to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area served by them but also how to secure that improvement and measure it during the life of their contracts.

 

The Procurement Team along with other North East Local Authorities and NEPO have been focusing on the further development of Social Value criteria that can be measured.  Working alongside a social enterprise, the Social Value Portal, a national toolkit has been developed to translate social value measures into a monetary value, and therefore enable comparisons to be made across a range of social value criteria.  This tooklit has been extensively adopted in various ways by authorities across the Country.

 

Whilst the measures have been devised nationally, the Social Value Portal agreed to provide local, Gateshead specific metrics to use in our social value evaluations.  The ongoing maintenance of the metrics is under consideration as the social value portal have advised that updating the metrics will be chargeable, and the fee associated with updating the metrics is not insignificant, therefore working with NEPO we are considering alternative options regarding the maintenance of local metrics.

 

A team of subject experts from across the Council came together to form a Social Value Delivery Group and they considered the 150+ measures from the toolkit, streamlined and prioritised  them against the themes in the draft Corporate Commissioning and Procurement Strategy 2021/22 – 2026/27 which should also represent Council priorities to create the Gateshead Social Value toolkit.

 

In Gateshead every contract will have a default 20% weighting for Social Value that is then divided into 4 themed areas of the draft Corporate Commissioning and Procurement Strategy Other Local Authorities allocated 10% we are looking to allocate 20% weighting.

 

It was noted that there is an awful lot of priorities to be considered as a default position.  It was queried whether there would be a standard list each contract would include, however it was considered that there should be flexibility to bespoke the measures to the contract matter.  It was also noted that some measures would not be used as there may be terms and conditions within the contract that mandate specific measures.

 

It was noted that the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, would have to be reviewed in light of the Social Value toolkit.

 

It was noted that one of the things we don’t do well enough is that when things go wrong ask for a proper review of lessons learned when we have made errors we should build that into the process.

 

It was queried whether we are going to support Gateshead based organisations to do  ...  view the full minutes text for item CR56

CR57

Annual Work Programme pdf icon PDF 142 KB

Report of the Chief Executive and the Strategic Director, Corporate Services and Governance

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee requested that the Corporate Procurement Strategy amendments be brought back to the January meeting. They also requests a Members Seminar be organised to consider the zero-based budget approach.  There was also a request for a workshop with CLES for Councillors to better understand the Community Wealth Building work.

 

RESOLVED    -           (i)        That the provisional work programme be noted but with the following amendments:

-       the Covid Update in January to be merged with the one in April

-       the amended Corporate Commissioning and Procurement Strategy be added onto the January meeting.

-       The new approach to budget setting be scrutinised in March/April

 

                                   (ii)        That the Committee noted that future reports on the work programme would be brought to the Committee

 

 

Help us improve this site by giving feedback