Agenda item

Agenda item

Developing and embedding Social Value within Highways Service - update

Report of the Director of Operations (Highways)

 

This report provides an update on progress in developing and embedding social value as a business as usual aspect within the Highways Service. The report outlines the actions taken since the previous Ethical Procurement sub-group meetings on 7 June 2018 and December 2017.

Minutes:

The Group considered a report of the Director of Operation (Highways) which provided an update on developing and embedding social value within the Highways Service. The report outlined the actions taken since the previous Ethical Procurement sub-group meetings on 7 June 2018 and December 2017 and the improvements made since the appointment of the Social Value Project Manager within the service. It also highlighted further planned activity for social value and next steps for the service to continue with this area of development.

 

The Executive Member for Highways, Planning and Transport referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:-

 

·                The Social Value Project Manager joined the Highways service in July 2018 and had made significant improvements to raise awareness of social value and its importance as well as embed a culture across the service so that it becomes the norm;

·                Relationships with suppliers had significantly improved and as a result Highways were achieving greater outcomes for Manchester from a delivery and social value perspective;

·                The Social Value Project Manager had undertaken a review of contracts within Highways and met with 19 suppliers to date to raise contractors’ knowledge and understanding surrounding social value;

·                Tender documents had been reviewed to ensure that social value questions are tailored to the specific contract or framework in mind;

·                Four social value workshops in conjunction with Executive Members and the Procurement Team had taken place to raise awareness and aid staff’s understanding of social value;

·                There was now an understanding of the need to collaborate across frameworks with regards to developing and bringing together best practice around social value;

·                It was intended to hold Supplier Days to bring the supply chain together into a regular forum to discuss and emphasise the importance of social value across the supply chain;

·                It was planned to embed social value into governance processes and procedures as part of the implementation of the new PMO within the service

·                Highways would work collaboratively with the support of the Integrated Commissioning Team to upskill and inform contract and commissioning managers about the importance of monitoring social value and identify the correct method to report on this; and

·                The Service would continue to look into ways of developing social value KPIs for the service and now include the highest percentage for social value (currently 20%) in all future tenders

 

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were:-

 

·                The progress that had been made in embedding and delivering Social Value within the Service was very welcoming;

·                How were the monitoring and evaluation processes going to be developed;

·                Were there still some suppliers resistant to embracing Social Value;

·                Clarification was sought as to what the TC971 contract framework was;

·                Having undertaken the work to date, was it felt that this would result in improved relationships with suppliers in the future;

·                Was it possible to have details on the number of in-house apprentices that had been taken on;

·                Was there any information available on the delivery of Social Value from the Manchester Inner Ring Road contract;

·                Was there any means of calculating Social Value in house and connected to this was there any data on the number of the BME and EDI employees within the department;

·                Was there any specific reasons as to why the planned Supplier Days had not yet taken place;

·                Had there been any engagement with Trade Unions; and

·                With the appointment of the Social Value Project Manager, what was the expectation of contract management officers

 

The Social Value Project Manager advised that she had begun tracking Social Value commitments and met with contractors regularly for data on Social Value.  It was hoped that in the future it would be possible to provide quantitative evidence of how social value was being delivered.  At the present moment this was work in progress but would be contained in future updates.

 

The Group was advised that developing people’s knowledge and understanding of what social value was had met with varied success and had been challenging in some instances.  The Social Value Project Manager provided an example to the group where a contractor not been forthcoming in providing a social value element as part of a contract with the Council and how this had been addressed to a point where social value was now being delivered.

 

The Social Value Project Manager advised that relationships with contractors in the main had improved and is some instances, the Council was on its second round of social value commitments with some contractors.  It was also evident that contractors were now actively thinking on how they can deliver social value as part of the tender submission.

 

In terms of measuring social value in house the Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources reported that it was difficult to quantify certain aspects of social value and social value calculators did not provide all outcomes for the varying aspects of what could be derived from social value.

 

The Director of Operations (Highways) advised that in terms of in-house apprentices, the department had two within Manchester contracts and a further high level apprentice in the design office.  It was the intention of the department to take on more apprentices during 2019 once appropriate support mechanisms were in place.  It was also reported that it was intended to rotate apprentices amongst suppliers in order to provide them with a wider opportunity to develop their experience and skills. He also commented that in terms of the Inner Ring Road contract, the contractor had offered social value and it was being monitored on a monthly basis in terms of their delivery but the main contracts for this work pre-dated the active implementation of our current social value approach. The Group was also advised that the Council had monthly meetings with Trade Unions and they were aware and supportive of the Council’s approach to delivering social value.

 

The Social Value Project Manager advised that although her role was to ensure social value was being embedded across the Highways department and to also ensure contractors were aware of their requirements in the tender process, it was for contract managers to monitor the delivery of social value once a contract was in place.  To aid in this, social value workshops were to be set up to help raise awareness of staff across all departments.

 

Decision

 

The Group welcomes the progress that has been made developing and embedding social value within the Highways Service.

Supporting documents: