Introduction from Head of Commercial Procurement

I am pleased to introduce City of York Council’s updated and modernised Procurement Strategy.

Public procurement is at the heart of how City of York Council delivers high-quality services, supports our local economy, and makes best use of public funds. Each year, City of York Council spends a significant proportion of its budgets through contracts with suppliers and partners which can be found here. This strategy provides a clear framework for ensuring the expenditure delivers value for money, whilst also achieving broader social, economic and environmental benefits for the residents of York.

This strategy reflects our commitment to:

i. Continuous transparency and integrity in all procurement activity

ii. Support local businesses and SME’s and ensure they have fair access and opportunities

iii. Incorporate Social Value, Sustainability and the Council Plan commitments into all procurement activity

iv. Strong governance and accountability by all involved

v. Compliance with internal policies and all relevant Public Procurement Regulations

vi. Further encouragement of York’s Good Business Charter

By embedding the principles set out within this strategy, the Commercial Procurement Team at City of York will ensure procurement is not just a transactional process, but a powerful tool to help drive change, positivity and provide benefits to the residents of the city.

If you have any questions, or comments relating to this strategy, please contact us.

Head of Commercial Procurement
City of York Council

Introduction to procurement:

Public procurement is the process by which City of York Council acquires goods, works, and services from external suppliers to support the delivery of its statutory duties and council priorities. Procurement plays a vital role in ensuring that public funds are spent effectively, transparently, and in a way that delivers value for money for residents and taxpayers.

City of York Council is required to follow a structured procurement framework that is guided by legislation, national policy, and internal governance procedures. This ensures that purchasing decisions are fair, competitive, and capable of withstanding public and legal scrutiny.

Beyond compliance, public procurement also acts as a strategic tool for achieving broader social, economic, and environmental goals. Modern procurement practice within local government often integrates priorities such as supporting local businesses, encouraging innovation, promoting sustainability, and delivering social value — ensuring that public spending has a positive and lasting impact on the community and residents of the city.

By balancing legal obligations, financial responsibility, and strategic outcomes, City of York Council’s Commercial Procurement function helps secure the resources and partnerships needed to provide high-quality services and infrastructure for the residents of York.

This strategy sets out how City of York Council will manage procurement to ensure we delivery value for money, support local economic development, support local businesses, create opportunities within our procurements and drive continuous compliance with relevant procurement regulations whilst aligning activity to our corporate objectives.

Vision and Objectives:

Vision:

Our vision is to deliver transparent, fair, sustainable procurements that achieve best value, support the local economy, meet corporate objectives and ensure a high-quality service for the residents of York.

Objectives:

i. Local economic growth – Support small and local businesses, remove barriers to procurement, make procurement accessible to Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) and Voluntary Community Social Enterprises (VCSE’s)

ii. Clear commitment to City of Yorks Good Business Charter, ensuring the 10 components are driven through procurement activity to create a thriving supply chain and stable economy that drives each component through supply chains

iii. Value for money – Ensure all procurement activity secures the best quality service with a mix of fair cost, high quality and committed outcomes

iv. Compliance and transparency – Conduct all procurement activity adhering to procurement regulations, and internal procurement policies

v. Sustainability and Social Value – Incorporate social value and sustainability measures in all procurement activity and mirror the core commitments within the council plan

vi. Effective planning and engagement: Inform the markets, and public of upcoming opportunities at City of York Council, and engage with markets in advance to help shape procurement opportunities 

This strategy is guided and supported by:

This strategy is guided by and supported by key internal and national policies such as:

i. National Procurement Policy

ii. Procurement Act 2023 and other Public Procurement Regulations

iii. City of York Council, Council Plan

iv. City of York Council, Social Value Policy and Framework

v. City of York Council, Climate Change Strategy

vi. City of York Council, Good Business Charter

Strategic Priorities in Procurement:

Our strategic priorities are directly aligned with the objectives set out above. The below provides additional detail and context on each priority.

i. Delivering value for money: Adopt life cycle costing through contract management to ensure benchmarking takes place during the lifetime of a contract and to ensure ongoing efficiency and effectiveness. During the procurement lifecycle, competition and fairness will be encouraged and demonstrated.

ii. Supporting the Local Economy: We will remove barriers where possible that SME’s and VCSE’s may face during the procurement lifecycle and where possible, establish simplified processes. For larger contracts, we commit to breaking these into lots where appropriate to increase SME and VCSE involvement and participation. We commit to including the use of SME’s and VCSE’s in the local economy where social value is a requirement in the procurement, including co-operative businesses, and other legal entity businesses.

iii. Driving compliance and transparency: All procurement opportunities will be published on the E-Tendering platforms, and Government platforms to ensure transparency of opportunities and contracts already held by City of York Council. Information can be found here, and here. Regular training will be provided to all staff at City of York Council on Commercial Procurement to ensure understanding of the procurement lifecycle and principles of procurement.

iv. Increasing sustainability and social value: In all procurement opportunities, we will require suppliers to demonstrate how their organisation will assist City of York Council in achieving it’s strategic, corporate objectives. We will include requirements such as local economic support and growth, carbon reduction, community engagements, local employment, apprenticeships energy efficiency and use of sustainable materials.

v. Effective planning and engagement: We will prepare a pipeline of procurement activity which will set timescales and resources to enable us to combine our own spending power, collaborate with others and engage the market and our communities to explore innovative solutions. Pre-Market Engagement will become a priority tool to engage with the markets prior to going out to tender to ensure City of York Council is taking advantage of market intelligence.

vi. Climate Change: City of York Council has set the ambition for York to be a net zero and climate ready city by 2030. The York Climate Change Strategy creates the framework for emissions reduction and adaptation across York, identifying the objectives we need to deliver in order to achieve our ambition. The council, however, is directly responsible for less than 4% of the total emissions in York; but our wider influence can extend far beyond this. Procurement is therefore a crucial mechanism for achieving our wider ambitions by ensuring the requirements for goods, services and works are procured in a way that supports the Council objectives. We will follow the Sustainable Procurement Hierarchy when procuring goods, services and works and expect suppliers to follow the hierarchy when delivering contracts.

vii. Employment and Skills: The City of York Council and its partners are ‘ambitious about employment for all’. Embedding employment and skills KPIs in procurement activity can deliver significant additional value for York’s residents and businesses. Creating new opportunities (e.g. jobs, apprenticeships, Supported Internships, work placements), prioritising local recruitment and supporting skills development will help to drive inclusive growth, reduce inequality, and address current and future skills needs. We will expect suppliers to demonstrate an understanding of York’s local labour market and work with key partners such as, York Learning and Jobcentre Plus, to maximise the impact of employment and skills activities

How will we monitor:

Performance on all contracts, and tendering opportunities will be undertaken by contract managers across City of York Council, as well as the Commercial Procurement Team. We will:

i. Produce transparent reports on spend across City of York Council to ensure contracts are in place and identify areas of off-contract spend  

ii. Include Key Performance Indicators in contracts to hold suppliers accountable

iii. Produce spend reports detailing local vs non-local spend to identify areas of weakness

iv. Continuous promotion for value for money and social value

v. Independent audits on the Commercial Procurement function to identify areas of improvement

vi. Explore collaboration opportunities to create opportunities across the Yorkshire and Humber region

vii. Identify areas to achieve maximum economies of scale

viii. Lessons learnt and adopting best practises

By embedding the above principles, we will continue with our commitment to openness, fairness, and transparency through all procurement activity at City of York Council. This on-going commitment will ensure we are achieving our strategic priorities whilst identifying areas of improvement. It is the aim of the Commercial Procurement Team to foster a culture of integrity and maintain the principles of procurement within the council.

Accessing Commercial Procurement information

City of York Council continue to be committed to openness and transparency in procurement activity. We strive to be open, and transparent and publish all opportunities online through various platforms.

All tendering opportunities are advertised on the council’s e-tendering portal Yortender, which can be found here. Suppliers can register and create an account free of charge to view tendering opportunities and to view the tender pack.

All suppliers who wish to bid for City of York Council procurement opportunities must be registered on the Central Digital Platform, with all supplier information submitted and kept up to date. Your organisation can register on the Central Digital Platform here. 

Opportunities are also advertised on Find a Tender, Central Digital Platform. You will find notice information detailing what is being procured, when, and where. To find this information, please click here.