Procurement and Commissioning Strategy

1. Introduction

As central government funding decreases, it is important that the Council spends its money strategically, so that it can continue to deliver services which are efficient and able to manage the future demands of our community. This Strategy introduces objectives which align with the Council's corporate priorities, setting goals to create benefits for the Borough while at the same time adhering to sound commercial, best value and governance principles. One of the key themes of this Strategy will be to make procurement and opportunities more accessible to businesses local to the Borough, while maintaining a fair and transparent approach.

2. What is Procurement and why is it important?

Procurement is the process which the Council must follow in order to purchase third party goods, services and works. This could be something simple, such as stationery, or the provision of a complex service, such as the appointment of an external provider for refuse collection. The processes the Council follows are defined by procurement legislation, which underpins the Contract Standing Orders in the Council's Constitution. The Council will apply the highest professional standards when spending money on behalf of taxpayers, so that it can provide the best possible services whilst keeping tax down and reducing our dependence on central government funding.

3. Purpose

As a public sector buyer, Great Yarmouth Borough Council spends in excess of £50 million per year on contracts. This money is used to procure the third party supplies, works and services which help to us deliver key services to the public. By thinking strategically about how we procure these services, we can support the Council's wider social, economic and environmental objectives and help stimulate a vibrant local economy. By building relationships and increasing our knowledge of local businesses, we can work to increase the proportion the Council spends within the Borough, which directly feeds into one of the Council's Corporate Priorities: "a strong and growing economy".

We are committed to ensuring our procurement benefits the Borough by adding social value. By creating job opportunities and supporting the local supply chain, we can have an impact on our local community. In conjunction with the Council's Contract Standing Orders, this Strategy will outline the Council's key objectives, principles, goals and responsibilities in its strategic approach to procurement.

4. The objectives of the Council's Strategy

The Council's corporate priorities are:

• a strong and growing economy
• improved housing and strong communities
• high-quality and sustainable environment
• an efficient and effective council

This Strategy sets out below a number of objectives - which the Council will seek to focus on throughout all procurement activity. The objectives are aimed to align with and support the Council's corporate priorities. The objectives of this Strategy are:

Growing and encouraging opportunities for the local economy

We will do this by: Building resources and directories of local businesses for staff to use pre-procurement; holding 'meet the buyer' events to warm up the local market and ensure local providers are aware of upcoming opportunities. We want to involve our communities and local businesses in shaping our approach to procurement and commissioning, and we will consult with local businesses to get feedback on working with the Council. We will develop and implement a local supplier engagement plan including the use of targeted communication to local suppliers; and we will encourage use of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).

Creating social value

We will do this by: considering social value in writing specifications, award criteria and contracts; by ensuring our contractors are considering social factors, establishing prompt payment down the local supply chain; by identifying benefits that we achieve in our contracts for the community, particularly in deprived areas (e.g. new facilities, jobs or an improved living space); by encouraging all new procurement activities to include apprenticeships as part of their selection criteria. We will consider the social value our contracting opportunities can add to our community's economic, social and environmental wellbeing - where possible, splitting larger contracts into lots to encourage SMEs to bid.

Supporting the Council's Sustainability Strategy; supporting delivery of the Carbon Reduction Action Plan - working towards a carbon net zero target of 2035

We will do this by: embedding sustainable principles into our commissioning and contracting activities to 'green' the economy; by encouraging all new procurement activities to consider sustainability criteria as part of their selection such as the use of green energy and the offset of carbon emissions; by ensuring that we consider our environmental objectives in all new procurements and in our contract management activities; by (where appropriate) including the reduction of waste and the delivery of our high environmental standards in service area contract management.

Increasing staff knowledge and support throughout the procurement cycle

We will do this by: providing regular training to all commissioning officers to ensure that they follow best practice; assessing skills and knowledge requirements within the service areas, developing a planned approach to delivering procurement updates and training.

Mitigation of the risk of legal challenges

We will do this by: combining sound governance, transparency, accountability and probity with proportionality in our operational processes; ensuring that our policies and procedures reflect the latest legislation and are fit for purpose, including regular review of value thresholds and procurement routes.

Delivering better value contracts and savings to the taxpayer

We will do this by: establishing performance reporting to include savings opportunities and capturing other key procurement indicators such as commercial and social benefits; by providing accurate contract management information to support commercial risk management and improve our forward planning capability.

A simpler and more commercially focused experience for partners and contractors

We will do this by: working with external stakeholders including businesses and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector to understand and remove barriers to our procurements. By working with external partners such as Crown Commercial Services, ESPO, Procurement for Housing, Eastern Procurement Ltd. and the East of England LGA

5. Good principles of Procurement

At the centre of this Strategy are the best practice principles which underpin the processes the Council follows in commissioning services: transparency, integrity, economy, openness, fairness, competition and accountability. Below are some of the practical steps the Council will take to embed these principles in its processes.

Economy and competition

Pre-market analysis

The procurement service will assist officers in choosing the best route for procurement, checking for duplications in service to rationalise contracts where appropriate. The Council's procurement service will support the Council to achieve this by:

• conducting gap analysis of current contracts
• identifying opportunities for partnership working with other public sector organisations
• advising staff on the appropriate procurement process for an individual procurement

Market research

The Council needs to build its knowledge so that it can identify as many businesses that can deliver the community's requirements as possible and create a competitive tendering process. We will achieve this by:

• conducting regular benchmarking exercises throughout contracts to stay informed on trends in value, quality and industry standards.
• finding new ways to connect with the local market and advertise our opportunities by making use of electronic tendering and social media, while ensuring that our opportunities are accessible to all in our community.

Transparency, openness and accountability

Central government transparency requirements enforce a number of changes to the way public contracting bodies record procurement activity. We will achieve this by publishing the following on our website:

• a quarterly contracts register
• spending over £500 and purchase card purchases
• performance on paying contractors within 30 days
• advertising and publication of tender documents on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender (where legally required)

Fairness and consistency

We want everyone who does business with the Council to have the same experience; our processes should be straightforward, efficient and modern. We will achieve this by:

• a new approach to evaluating tenders through improved award criteria which consider quality and price proportionately.
• use of an electronic tendering system to ensure we are compliant with government legislation on the provision of fully electronic procurement while still supporting those local suppliers that might not use online services.
• developing standardised documents to ensure that procurement practice is consistent across all parts of the Council.

6. Legislative and constitutional context

From February 2025 the way we procure new contracts has been governed by the Procurement Act 2023, any procurement initiated prior to the 24^th of February 2025 continues to be governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The new Procurement Act 2023 looks after the entire lifecycle of a contract from pre-market to termination, whereas old legislation was more focused on the awarding of public contracts. The new legislation was designed to provide a range of benefits to improve the way public procurements are carried out, these are: 

• making public procurement more accessible, efficient and beneficial for both councils and suppliers
• provide clearer frameworks for decision making
• create a more flexible and simpler commercial system that meets the needs of our country better, whilst remaining compliant with our international obligations
• open up public procurement to new suppliers such as small businesses and social enterprises so that they can compete for and win more public contracts
• relax restrictions on considering factors such as supplier location and social value, allowing councils more flexibility to support local businesses and achieve wider community benefits
• embed transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle so that the spending of taxpayers' money can be properly scrutinised.

By ensuring we, as a Council, are following the regulations set out in the Procurement Act 2023, we can provide more opportunities to local businesses which not only benefits our local economy but also supports our environment and communities. The focus is shifting away from sourcing the cheapest supplier to looking at which suppliers contribute the most social value, such as employment opportunities, carbon reduction, and ethical practices. The Council also publishes an annual statement in compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.