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Social value fund boosted

Social value fund boosted

A fund we set up to support projects in our local communities has been given a further boost after receiving contributions from two more of our supplier partners.

Electrical supplies company CEF and property security company Secure Empty Property are our latest partners to contribute to our Social Value Fund, which has allocated almost £1.4 million since 2013 to help us deliver projects in our communities.

Together the companies have contributed around £17,700, which will go towards projects like energy advice workshops for tenants, work clubs, money advice services, and other projects to tackle financial and digital exclusion.

The Social Value Fund is made up from financial contributions from suppliers we have procured services from and is used to support projects that match the needs of our communities.

Noel Sharpe is our Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer. Noel said: “Our Social Value Fund is important because it helps us to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of our communities.

“It helps us to get so much more out of the way we procure services because we can form true project partners whose values are aligned with our own.

“We’re incredibly thankful to CEF, Secure Empty Property and all our contract partners, not just for their contributions to the fund, but the array of other value-added activity they and their employees support us with.”

Our ground-breaking Peer Navigators initiative with Bolton CVS is just one of the projects to have received funding from the Social Value Fund.

Peer Navigators are recruited from our estates to provide a wide variety of opportunities including employment and training opportunities for people who live within their communities, to support their fellow residents with a range of issues such as finding work, money problems, addiction, loneliness and isolation and family breakdown.

We have up to 12 Peer Navigators, each working on an 18-month contract, in neighbourhoods across Bolton.

Social value funds like ours are common practice across the public sector and were made possible by the Public Services (Social Value) Act that became law in 2013.

It helps organisations that are procuring public services to get more value for money for our local communities through the procurement process.

Our fund requires a minimum 1% of the contract spend from suppliers as a contribution to the fund for all contracts with a value of £50k (excluding VAT) or above.

Our Tackling Poverty Group helps to decide how the fund should be allocated, with the remit that it is directed towards the delivery of our social value priorities.

The income for our Social Value Fund in 2021/22 was £122,000, which included contributions from over 25 of our contractors and suppliers.

To ensure transparency and accountability, we publish annually on our website a list of spend summarising what projects and initiatives the Social Value Fund has been allocated towards.

Thank you Ian and Paul

Ian Buckley, Branch Manager, and Paul Gregory, Group Manager, from CEF are pictured with our Paul Fielding (contract manager) and Noel Sharpe.

Two representatives from Secure Empty Property are stood presenting a cheque to two representatives from Bolton at Home

Thank you Gareth

Gareth Carson, Head of Operations for Secure Empty Property, is pictured with our Brian Lee (contract manager) and Noel Sharpe.

A representative from CEF is stood presenting a cheque to two representatives from Bolton at Home