Back in 2013, in an effort to improve the social value of the council’s commissioning and procurement, Birmingham City Council adopted a social value policy and a living wage policy, and established the Birmingham Business Charter for Social Responsibility.
Social value considers how a proposed procurement might improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of an area, and is one of the tools the council uses to help it award contracts to businesses and organisations.
The policy continues to have a positive impact, as set out in our first annual report on social value, with £194,619,328 spent by Birmingham City Council in the local economy over the past year – including more than £3 million on social enterprises.
Of the council procurement spend, 79 per cent is within the West Midlands, with 56 per cent being spent in Birmingham itself.
This year has seen 68,141 weeks of local employment generated from the council’s procurement work, helping to provide well-paid and secure employment for people across the city and the region.
One of the improvements we have made is the introduction of ‘ward multipliers’ to encourage activity in our most deprived wards, by rewarding bidders working in these areas with a higher score during competitive tenders.
Other than work placements, the pandemic has not had a negative impact on our social value work.
We know there are further improvements we can make, and we will continue to work with our partners to expand our social value impact. But our report shows that Birmingham City Council is leading the way in supporting the local economy through procurement.
I am delighted that we have been able to invest in businesses from across our region, helping to boost our economy while also providing the services that our city requires and consistently delivering social value to the people of Birmingham.
We are proud of our model of procurement and it yields brilliant results, both in terms of service delivery and in the social value that it generates.