Working with our contractors & suppliers to deliver social value

We work with our contractors and suppliers to deliver social value through our procurement process. We're committed to going beyond the minimum requirements of the Social Value Act, to apply it to procurements of all goods, services and supplies contracts of values above £50k.

We've worked with Anthony Collins Solicitors to develop a bespoke Social Value in Procurement Toolkit which sets out our approach on how to apply our social value policy through contractual relationships with suppliers.

Our Social Value in Procurement Toolkit has a dual purpose and is aimed at supporting staff within Bolton at Home with responsibility for procuring goods, services and works on behalf of the organisation, as well as supporting our contractors and suppliers to understand our approach to social value in procurement.

Social-Value-in-Procurement-Toolkit.pdf [pdf] 1MB 

Social Value Fund

We have established a Social Value Fund to help us deliver projects and initiatives that meet our social value core priorities, as defined in our updated social value policy.

The fund is made up from financial contributions from procurements, and is used to support our social value policy and core priorities. We require 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.

We ensure that the money from the fund is linked to our social value core priorities and is allocated to projects that match the needs of our communities. Funding allocation is determined by Bolton at Home’s Management Team under the remit that it is directed towards delivery of our social value core priorities.

In order to achieve transparency, and ensure accountability to all of our stakeholders, including our customers, contractors, suppliers, our partners, our auditors and Regulator, The Regulator of Social Housing, we will publish annually on our website, a list of spend summarising what projects and initiatives the Social Value Fund has been allocated towards.

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

The projects funded during 2021/22 include:

·   Delivering energy advice sessions for tenants.

·   Delivering work club sessions and helping people into work.

.   Delivering money advice sessions.

·   Delivering indvidiual training sessions to help tackle digital exclusions.

·   Employing Peer Navigators from our local communities.

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.

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.”

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.

Thank you Gareth

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

(2 August 2022)