Report of the City Treasurer attached

This report provides an update on the impact of the Council's procurement policies on small and medium businesses in the City and to consider challenges and what more can be done in the future to enable SMEs in the City to compete for City Council contracts and commissioned services.

The Committee considered a report of the City Treasurer, which provided an update on the impact of the Council's procurement policies on small and medium businesses (SME) in the City.  The report also identified challenges and what more could be done in the future to enable SMEs in the City to compete for Council contracts and commissioned services.

The Head of Procurement referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included: -

·                The Council’s work with SME’s through policies and procedures, which had included the introduction of a Sustainable Procurement Policy, with an aim increase the support for SME’s to secure business through the Council’s supply chain;

·                Additional action the Council had taken to support a diverse supply chain, which had included the incorporation of GMCA Social Value Policy into Council policies and procedures and the introduction of a social fund to help smaller suppliers that may find it difficult to demonstrate “in kind” social value in the tender process but may be able to pay a small percentage of the contract value into the social fund as an alternative;

·                Examples of wider business support for SME’s from the Council, in addition to the measures introduced through policies and procedures;

·                How the Council measured the impact of its procurement policies, utilising the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) to undertake annual reviews of the impact the sustainable procurement policy with the Council’s top 300 suppliers and contractors; and

·                Next steps, including developing links with the University, Manchester Metropolitan University and NHS procurement teams, and working with the Work and Skills teams to identify how best to promote opportunities and support SME’s.

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

·                Was there any analysis undertaken regarding the breakdown of different categories of SME’s – micro, small and medium;

·                Was there any gap analysis undertaken of SME’s with regards to different contracts and how they competed;

·                What work was being done around cooperatives;

·                Noting the good work of Central Library’s Business and Intellectual Property Centre; and

·                What was being done to support specific groups in the employment market, such as 50 years plus.

Officers stated that an analysis and breakdown could be given between companies that employed more than 100 people and those that employed fewer and this would be included in future update reports.  Procurement would look to see if this could be further broken down in the work that CLES undertook annually. With regard to gap analysis it was reported that SME’s were invited to tender for contracts and were included in any soft market tendering exercises to ensure that they were represented, work was also ongoing to support cooperatives and social enterprises. Officer’s reported that compared to other cities, Manchester had led the way in regard to social value and ethical procurement and specific engagement was undertaken with employers and providers in regard to a number of specific priority groups, including the 50yr plus age group.

The Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources described the achievements that had been realised through social value and ethical procurement, noting that this area of work had been a priority for him and he had worked with officers to ensure that all contracts included these elements. He said that whilst progress had been made, work on this important area would continue to ensure this was firmly embedded in every contract.

Decision

The Committee:-

(1)       Notes the report; and

(2)       Recommends that any future update report include analysis of the numbers of different types of SMEs – micro, small and medium.