Annex 1
City of York
Council
Social Value Policy
Contents
Introduction to City of York Council’s Social Value Policy
Section One: Understanding change and management
Section Two: Driving Social Value in submissions
Section Three: When will the Social Value policy apply
Section Four: Why is there a Social Value policy and what does success look like
Section Five: Social Value Outcome Framework
This policy outlines City of York Council’s approach to social value through the procurement process whilst incorporating core commitments from the Council Plan.
As a council we spend £140m on goods and services each year, more than any other organisation in the city. This provides the council with significant leverage to incentivise suppliers to be more sustainable in their practices and to encourage the organisations we buy from to deliver additional social, environmental, and economic benefits to the city and to the residents of York.
This policy sets out City of York Council’s commitment to embedding social value into its procurement and commissioning processes, creating a supply chain that helps us work towards our strategic priorities, achieving targets and bettering the city for our residents.
We aim to maximise the value of every pound we spend, and we must work with developers, suppliers, our partners, and local communities to create and develop opportunities for the local economy, local wealth building and retention to help to achieve our social value requirements. As service delivery increasingly shifts to external providers, this will become ever more important part of the council’s aspiration to become a more sustainable and resilient city.
The council include a minimum of 10% weighting in the decision-making award criteria for our procurements, and in 2020, Government issued a National Procurement Policy Statement (PPN06/20) which requires Contracting Authorities such as the council to have regard to social value and national priority outcomes.
The statement will also enable us to meet our legal obligations set out in the Social Value Act (2012). The Act places an obligation on the council to have regard to economic, social, and environmental wellbeing within any procurement for public sector contract which are subject to the Procurement Act 2023.
This policy and the legislative requirements, necessitate our consideration of social value at the earliest possible opportunity in our procurements, and ensure we meet our obligations as well as achieving our objectives. The council endeavours to not only meet the legal requirements, but exceed them, through consideration of Social Value within all procurement activity.
City of York Council’s Social Value policy outlines our commitment towards measuring and managing the Social Value our organisation is creating. We understand that this process is important, and our priorities have been linked to the Council Plan 2023-2027.
The council’s Council Plan (2023-2027) sets a strong ambition to increase opportunities for everyone living in York to live healthy and fulfilling lives. It builds on our strengths, to help us prepare for the future, and improve the quality of life for residents today.
The Council Plan identifies what the council will aim to deliver with partners over the next four years. It is important that we are both ambitious and realistic. We will focus the council’s limited resources where it will make the biggest difference, whilst exploring innovative ways to attract investment into the city.
By focusing on our core commitments at all stages of decision making, those outcomes that are most important to us - creating equal opportunity, finding innovative ways to make the city more affordable, tackling climate change, and improving health and wellbeing - we will improve the lives of residents now and for generations to come.
There are 4 core commitments City of York Council believe to be the key parts to achieve the Council vision of healthier, fairer, more affordable, more sustainable, and more accessible city where residents feel valued. As such, the Social Value policy has captured these commitments and made it the heart of the policy. These are:
i. Equalities and Human Rights
ii. Affordability
iii. Climate
iv. Health
Whilst the above commitments are fixed, suppliers may propose to deliver social value in any number of ways. This is to cater for the varied nature of public sector contracts; encourage innovative approaches to service delivery; and ensure that any benefits meet specific local needs. There is no “one size fits all” model and each procurement exercise will be different and require different outcomes.
This Social Value policy applies to all procurement activity undertaken at the council and each procurement will capture one of the commitments detailed above, but also other areas of high focus such as:
i. Community Engagement
ii. Charity Engagement
iii. Apprenticeships
iv. School, College, and University Engagement
v. Work Placements
vi. Supporting the Local economy – Use of local businesses
vii.
Supporting local and sustainable food suppliers and maximise
sustainable and fair-trade food
Understanding change
City of York Council will ensure that our approach to understanding change is:
We will involve our stakeholders and markets in our Social Value journey and ensure we are able to evidence Social Value achievements and encourage creative and innovative solutions to be driven through spend activity.
We will celebrate successful Social Value outcomes and feedback to stakeholders to help drive success across further procurements and spend activity. We will inform and engage with markets to highlight expectations and explain how this must be monitored during the contract term for continuous improvement.
· Identify areas of improvement
We will actively monitor areas of improvement to ensure the appropriate Social Value is applied. Social Value will form part of the legal contract which will enable City of York Council to hold suppliers accountable if poor performance occurs. We will actively seek assurances from suppliers on how they intend to deliver and monitor Social Value as part of the contract and imbed those assurances into the contract.
Submission requirements
To ensure good quality social value submissions from the market, the following principles are required in any future tenders:
i. The submission clearly delivers and against one or more social value objectives or the four core commitments
ii. The submission clearly defines the social value additionality offered during the lifetime of the contract
iii. The submission clearly references how this delivers against specific aspects of the service specification
iv. The submission clearly defines any legacy intended beyond the lifetime of the contract.
v. The submission clearly defines what intelligence is being used to inform the proposal
vi. The submission clearly identifies the outputs and outcomes that will be used by both the organisation and the commissioner to both demonstrate delivery and effectiveness of the delivery
vii. The submission demonstrates that the proposal is realistic and achievable through track record and or proposed partnership approaches to effectively deliver. Where appropriate the evaluation panel will seek additional guidance from City of York Council leads across specialist areas.
Application
The policy must be considered when buying goods or services over
the value of £100k but can also apply to contracts of any
value. The degree of consideration should be proportionate to the
value of the contract. At least 10% of bid scoring will be
allocated to social value.
Why is there a policy?
City of York Council have created this policy to ensure we are maximising public benefit, and to achieve value for money through procurement activity. It is crucial to not only meet legal obligations, but to reduce demand on services by encouraging suppliers to support our strategic priorities and to deliver for the residents of York. Creative and innovative ideas are required to drive change and better the city during the term of a contract.
What does success look like?
A higher number of procurements that have social value included as part of the award criteria will set the tone and expectation from City of York Council. We will link Social Value to the Council Plan and other policies to ensure we are achieving strategic objectives.
Suppliers who are in contract with City of York Council will be held accountable to their Social Value submission and this will form part of the legal contract. It is expected of suppliers to evidence they are meeting Social Value requirements and to ensure improvement plans are in place and implemented if this is not being achieved.
All stakeholders and markets are aware of Social Value and the importance it carries during a procurement. It will enable City of York Council to identify gaps and find solutions to fill those while meeting key priorities.
We will continue hosting and leading Market Engagement events to encourage suppliers and the market to do business with the council. This will enable City of York Council to clearly articulate our requirements and set out the vision for procurements.
It will enable suppliers to create, collaborate, and understand the needs and desires of the City of York Council, which will result in success stories, positive outcomes, and the desire to do more.
The Outcome Framework
The goal of this document, is to suggest social value questions to be used within City of York’s public procurements to directly address defined needs in the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2032, the Climate Change Strategy 2022-2032, the Economic Strategy 2022-2032 the Skills Strategy 2020-2030 and York Cultural Strategy 2020-25 as well as the Council Plan (2023-2027).
The City of York Council, NHS partners and city partners see social value as a “golden thread” that flows through the entire procurement process, rather than just a question asked at tender stage.
This document is intended to be used as guidance and is not intended to be mandatory.
The social, economic and environmental outcomes suggested within this document are suggested to be sought through utilising PPN 06/20 – the Social Value Model.
This model seeks additional outcomes (outside the core deliverables of the tender) through specific commitments made by suppliers during the tender stage. It is added value, rather than funded value through the terms of the contract.
For this local strategy to be a success, holding suppliers to account on the commitments made is essential. This must be done through robust and effective management.
The framework can be found here (link to be inserted)
Chloe Wilcox – Head of Procurement, City of York Council
Date of review – 08/01/2025