Procurement

Regional Procurement Programme

Recognising that smarter procurement is a key deliverer of cashable savings the EM IEP Board agreed at the January 2010 meeting to the funding of a regional procurement programme which will cover four areas:

1. Supporting adoption of national initiatives within the East Midlands - There are a number of national projects based around the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Category programme which includes Energy, Fleet, Professional Services, Food, ICT, and Office Solutions. This activity will support the transfer of knowledge and information from the national initiative programmes so that authorities within the East Midlands can adopt such good practice in their contracting approaches. Already the majority of local authorities are using the new "flexible" approach to energy procurement based on compliant OGC framework contracts resulting in savings for those authorities. The EM IEP are providing project support for an initial cadre of five authorities in their implementation of the Consultancy Value Programme which is about ensuring a consistent, controlled, and effective use of consultancy within local authorities - making them a more intelligent client and seeking to reduce consultancy spend.

2. Supporting e auctions - The EM IEP is providing support to local authorities in delivering e auctions, either as part of the wider OGC national collaboration initiatives or via regional or sub regional initiatives. The role of the support officer will be to liaise with the PBO's and local authorities to identify forthcoming opportunities, communicate these to local authorities within the region, facilitate participation in the specification requirements design stage and gain commitment into the opportunity that is put to the market. Such activities will, over a period of time, reduce duplicating framework contracts and enhance volumes with a resulting improvement in the offer. e-auction activity has already delivered £3.3m of savings in the last 12 months.

3. Benchmarking - Benchmarking activity is assisting local authorities in their procurement decision making. The EM IEP are supporting Northamptonshire CC on behalf of the region to provide benchmarking in which specific commodities or service categories are researched, comparative pricing data compared and the resulting information and analysis made available to councils. In doing so Councils can identify opportunities in which efficiencies can be targeted for action.

4. Sharing good practice - Linking the benchmarking, e auction activity, and supporting national initiatives and sharing of best practice through workshops and networks.

Procurement Networks
EM IEP has supported the establishment of procurement clusters, particularly with regard to Districts as recommended within the National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy to the extent that there are a number of significant procurement clusters within the East Midlands. These include
• Procurement Lincolnshire - County Council and 7 Districts
• Welland Procurement - Rutland County Council and 5 Districts
• NAPS - Northamptonshire Area Procurement Service - 5 Districts
• North Derbyshire Procurement Shared Service Unit. - 3 District

These clusters are already delivering significant savings (CSRO7 period) for their respective authorities of £26m.

In addition, the EM IEP support the sub regional and regional procurement networks. The sub regional networks include participants from the wider public sector. These cluster and networks support collaboration, enabling more significant contract values leading to improved pricing and a greater degree of expertise brought to bear.

The EM IEP as been working with other regional partners such as the Government Office, the Regional Development Agency, the regional NHS Procurement Hub and private sector representatives such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the Institute of Directors to develop, and launched in January 2010 the East Midlands Public Procurement Opportunities Plan. This activity links national policy drivers such as Glover and Policy through Procurement with a regional focus and has three strategic objectives.

• Facilitating supply of appropriate support for businesses, including third sector organisations, in the public service industry
• Improving dialogue between key regional partners and stakeholders
• Supporting improvements in public sector procurement policies and practice

Please note, if you are interested in viewing/bidding for contracts available in the region please go to:

http://www.sourceeastmidlands.co.uk

Please visit our Procurement Hub for more procurement related information including:

- Contracts Database
- Standard Documents
- Sustainable Procurement
- Temporary Agency Staff
- Consultancy Value Programme
- Proclass