Commissioning and Procurement Plan Consultation Event

21 November 2016

Rachel Baillie, Assistant Director Inclusion, Commissioning and Procurement

Overview

• Welcome – tea/ coffee

• Overview of the Commissioning and Procurement Plan and our development themes

• Question and answer session

• Workshop on Social Value

• Workshop on market support

• Feedback and summary

• Evaluation form

Commissioning and Procurement Plan

Our Commissioning and Procurement Plan is about making sure that the goods, works and services that the Council buys each year – and how we go about buying them – offer the greatest possible contribution towards our Council priorities

• Fit for purpose (FFP)

• Tackling inequalities (TI)

• Decent neighbourhoods (DN)

• Working City (WC)

The Plan is underpinned by the 4 development themes in the coloured boxes opposite, and is ultimately aimed at generating value for city residents.

Social Value

Local MarketsDigital

Contract Management

Commissioning and

Procurement Plan

How Commissioning and Procurement works at the CouncilCommissioning and procurement are two sides of the same ‘value’ coin

• Commissioning involves strategic planning and analysis, stakeholder engagement, and developing a service model

• Procurement is the process of externally purchasing the service which has been designed during the commissioning stage. There a number of types of procurement arrangement which we will outline in the following slide

• Contract Management underpins this whole process, ensuring that contracts are working, delivering value for money and quality outcomes, while also acting as a feedback loop into future commissioning phases

Strategic Planning and

Commissioning for Social Value

• Strategic Analysis - including

market, needs, risk, gap and

resource

• Engagement

• Consultation on formed proposals

• Finalise commissioning model

Contract Management

• Confirm roles and reporting

methods/ frequency

• Scheduled quality and

performance data collection

• Contract risk assessment

• Active risk management

• User and stakeholder

intelligence gathering

Procurement

• Determine Procurement Route

Internal Gateways and Decision

Making

• Develop performance measures

• Advertise/ Negotiate Opportunity

• Evaluate

• Award Contract

When we use contracts and when we use grants• Contracts

All third party spend over £25,000 is managed by Commissioning and Procurement:

We must competitively tender for contracts in the open European market if the total value is above these thresholds:

• Goods and general services £164,176+

• Specific social services £589,148+

• Works £4,104,394+

Below these thresholds, we may chose to competitively procure or negotiate a contract, depending upon the specification requirements, and the market profile

• Grants• Funding provided under grant arrangements, as distinct from under contract, is a gift of funds for a specified purpose.

The specified activities are defined by the recipient in their application, rather than the funder. The assumption underlying a grant is that it is subsidising an activity that the funder considers necessary

• We have an annual grants programme, known as the Newcastle Fund, specifically for Voluntary Community Sector organisations

• These grants are opened to a bidding process each summer, and successful projects are covered by a grant agreement –similar to any other contract but proportionately applied

• In addition there are opportunities for organisations to bid for small grants via ward budgets

Our development themes

Social Value

• Social Value is value that accrues in our local communities,

normally categorised around economic, environmental, or social impact

• It is what city residents say is valuable to them, for example sustainable employment, a decent place to live, and equal access to a range of quality services in the local area

• As a public body we need to think about how we can secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits from the early commissioning stage

• In 2015, the Council collaboratively developed a Social Value Commitment with partners which set out 5 key principles…

Social ValueThink, Buy, Support Newcastle

Spending money locally generates value across our supply chain, and effectively delivers it to local people. For instance, research by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that every £1 spent by a local authority with local Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) generated an additional 63p of benefit for the local economy.

Community Focussed

We will seek to understand and deliver value that local people recognise. We will not assume that we know what people in the City want, but instead, we will ensure that we have mechanisms in place for local people and partners to feedback to us on a regular basis and use this feedback to shape our practice

Ethical Leadership

Social Value is not just about CSR or legal obligations, but is integrally linked to our ethics and beliefs. We will therefore seek to work with businesses that employ high ethical standards within their practice, and those who want to work to improve their ethical approach.

Green andSustainable

As well as ensuring our own high performance in this area as part of our Climate Change Commitment , and our commitment to prepare for its impacts we will work with partners and providers to promote green and sustainable practice in the work that we commission and procure.

EnablingChange

Ensuring people understand not only our high level principles, but also what Social Value might look like in their context and what they might personally do to create it.

Social Value - Framework

• As part of our Commissioning and Procurement Plan, we have launched a new framework for ensuring that Social Value considerations are captured at the commissioning stage, and are used to influence the ultimate service design/ procurement

Key themes How the Council will respond

Where this will be incorporated into our process(Commissioning model, Service Design, Evaluation, Contract

Monitoring)

Think, Buy, Support Newcastle

Community Focussed

Ethical Leadership

Green and SustainableWe will try out

this framework in one of our

workshops later

Local Markets

• Part of our Social Value Commitment to invest locally is predicated on having a strong local marketplace

• We want our local markets to continue to innovate and grow• 63% of our spend is currently invested in the North East, and 43% of this is

within Newcastle• To maintain and build on this, we invest in a programme of procurement

support aimed at increasing the competitiveness of local organisations, including tender readiness via the NEPO Business Club https://www.nepo.org/suppliers

• We also host contract specific procurement support sessions where the market requires, and invest in infrastructure support specific to the Voluntary Community Sector provided by NCVS

Local Markets

• Types of procurement support available:

• NEPO Business Club – Includes business surgeries run by B2B North, procurement readiness, NEPO portal training, access to finance, and more

• NCVS – offers advice and support on bid writing, types of funding and organisational constitution for VCS organisations in the city

• Council – offers bespoke tender readiness sessions for specific contracts where there is an identified need in the market

• We want to review how this support is working, and get your

views on whether there are particular gaps and how they could best

be filled

We will have a workshop to explore these

questions later

Digital development

• For local markets to be able to help shape and plan for future funding opportunities with the Council, it is important that they get access to the right information at the right time

• Digital is an increasingly important part of how we communicate with you, and a whole range of other external stakeholders

• Our Council website and the NEPO tender portal are a key part of this, as well as our Let’s Talk site where will often consult on future plans

• We are working to improve our external web presence so that you have access to the information you need to actively engage with the Council’s Commissioning and Procurement process

• To do this, we need to get your views on how things currently work, and how they could be improved

• On the next slide, we have outlined what you can currently find online, and where

Where you can find information

• Commissioning and Procurement Plan and policy documents e.g. Social Value commitment

• Market Position Statements

• Provider protocols and quality monitoring information

• Commissioning Intentions, register of expiring contracts and quarterly contract awards

• Newcastle Fund

• Forward Plan, decisions, and live consultations (Let’s Talk)

NEPO Portal https://www.nepo.org/

• Live contract register

• Live contract opportunities

• Contract awards

• Market engagement events

• NEPO Business Club

We want to know what you thinkIs there information missing? If

so, what?Have you used our web pages before? How easy is it to find

what you need?Leave us your comments on the

flipchart

Council Website https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/business/tenders-contracts-and-procurement

Contract management

• Once a provider is successful in gaining a contract, contract

management is critical to making sure that it is delivering value

for money, and that requirements are being met

• It is also an important part of the contractor/ provider relationship

• We are developing a new contract management toolkit which will apply to all Council contracts

• The toolkit will introduce a new risk-based methodology for identifying a proportionate contract management approach on a contract by contract basis

• The toolkit will clarify our approach to determining the frequency and intensity of contract management, and set a consistent approach for making contract management roles and responsibilities clear at the start of each contract

Contract management

• We will be launching the toolkit by the end of March 2017, and welcome your views on

proportionality

• A separate Newcastle Fund monitoring review is also underway as part of the Newcastle Fund review

Annual performance information

Provider meeting by exception

Managed in line with JCT/ NEC

requirements for works that are

deemed to be minor

Provider meeting by exception

Annual performance information

Provider meeting by exception

6 monthly performance information

At least 1 desktop review over the life

of the contract for contracts of 2+

years

Provider meeting by exception

Managed in line with JCT/ NEC

requirements for works that are

deemed to be intermediate

Provider meeting by exception

6 monthly performance information

At least 1 desktop review over the life

of the contract for contracts of 2+

years

Provider meeting by exception

3 monthly performance information

Annual desktop review and/or sample

check as appropriate

Provider meeting by exception

Managed in line with JCT/ NEC

requirements for works that are

deemed to be major

Provider meeting by exception

3 monthly performance information

Annual desktop review and/or sample

check as appropriate

Annual quality monitoring and

verification visit

Provider meeting by exception

Low

Medium

High

Goods Works Services

Please leave your comments on the

Contract Management

Table

How we will measure success• To make sure that all of this development work is having a positive impact, we have launched a

new set of performance measures to help us understand our impact and performance

• These measures will tell us more about how we are delivering against the themes below

• You will be able to track progress on our Council website

Are providers delivering in line

with performance indicators?

Are providers achieving or

exceeding our quality

expectations?

Are stakeholders

actively involved in

design, delivery and

management of our contracts?

How well is our SVOI process delivering the

Council’s Social Value

Commitment?

How well are our

Commissioning and

procurement processes

fulfilling our commitments

under the Voluntary

Sector Compact?

Is our local marketplace

becoming more procurement

ready?

Are we fulfilling our

management obligations?

Provider Performance

Stakeholder Involvement

Social Value

Voluntary Sector

Local Markets

Management

Questions

Workshop 1: Social Value

In groups, work through the Social Value framework in relation to the following illustrative example…

Example - Family Support Services (1/2)

• The Council are seeking to procure a 5 year contract for Family Support Services

• Family Support Services is made up of three main components: • Community Family Hub • Citywide Family Support• Targeted Services – Youth Support

• It includes a range of services to be delivered in partnership such as: Early Help, Sure Start, Parenting Programmes, Training and Support

• There is a budget envelope of approximately £5m

Workshop 1: Social Value

Example - Family Support Services (2/2)

Required service elements:

• Targeted Sure Start offer for approximately 10,000 children under 5 across eligible areas of the city

• Intensive whole family working for families with additional needs – c. 202 families at any one time

• Family Support volunteers for approximately 150 families at any one time

Structure:

• The contract should be within 3 geographical locations: West, Central and East

Workshop 1: Social ValueInformation is on your tables – in your group, work through the following questions:

Think, buy, support Newcastle

• What benefits would arise if a local organisation was delivering in response to Family Services? • How will local people benefit (including but not only service/end users – think about the broader community who may

experience employment, environmental and social benefits)?• What associated opportunities exist to pull down other funding and resources into the city or specific communities? • What whole system benefits do we expect to accrue as a result of Family Services, and who will benefit from these? If

there are multiple choices, how would we prioritise among them?

Community Focused

• What geographic or community boundary options are there within Family Services that could influence Social Value?• Are there any potential community impacts that we should particularly guard against in relation to Family Services?

Green and Sustainable

What environmental sustainability issues exist within Family Services, for example:• Relating to service users or customers?• Relating to staff who will be directly employed in relation to the opportunity?• Relating to the whole supply chain?• Relating to the community as a whole?

Ethical Leadership

What ethical issues exist within Family Services, for example:• Relating to service users or customers?• Relating to staff who will be directly employed in relation to the opportunity?• Relating to the whole supply chain?• Relating to the community as a whole?

Workshop 2: Market support

In groups work through the following questions:• Were you aware of the market support currently available?• Have you ever accessed any of the support?

• If yes, was it useful? Could it have been improved?• If no, is this because you didn’t know about it, or because the support on offer didn’t

seem to fit your needs?

• If we could support you in just one Commissioning and Procurement area, what would it be?

• What is your preferred way to get market support? E.g. events, online factsheets, peer support networks?

• Can you point to any areas of best practice that you have seen elsewhere that you would like us to learn from?

Summary and feedback

• Any questions?

Thank you!

Contacts• Rachel Baillie – Assistant Director, Inclusion Commissioning and

Procurement rachel.baillie@newcastle.gov.uk• Laura Choake – Commissioning Programme Manager

laura.choake@newcastle.gov.uk

Links• Council Commissioning and Procurement pages

https://www.newcastle.gov.uk/business/tenders-contracts-and-procurement

• NEPO portal https://www.nepo.org/• NEPO Business Club https://www.nepo.org/suppliers