Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

“1.0      Purpose of Report/Summary of Main Issues

1.1             To update the Committee on the emerging high-level spend analysis of the Belfast Anchors Procurement and Commissioning working group, which was established to explore how procurement and commissioning can embed community wealth building across the city to support inclusive and sustainable growth.  This information was presented to the Social Policy Working Group in February, 2022.

2.0       Recommendations

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

                                            i     note the initial high level spend analysis in the attached appendix and next steps, as outlined at paragraph 3.7; and

                                          ii     note that CLES will present the completed analysis to a future meeting of Party Group Leaders and provide party briefings if required, to allow further consideration of the next steps for this project and how procurement and commissioning can be used to build and create local community wealth.

3.0       Main Report

            Key Issues

3.1       The purpose of the Belfast Procurement and Commissioning working group is to carry out a spend analysis within their organisation, as part of commissioned work on behalf of the Community Planning Partnership.  It includes representatives from the city’s anchor institutions, the VCSE Panel as well as interested representatives from the city’s large private sector organisations (AllState and BT).

3.2       Four anchor organisations formed the first tranche for the analysis that the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) carried out working with the respective procurement teams: Belfast City Council, South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, Queen’s University and Ulster University. This analysis includes consideration of the Belfast and NI business base to explore strengths and weaknesses in the region to identify good practice and opportunities for development.  

3.3       Following initial consideration by the Belfast Procurement and Commissioning Working Group, the high-level analysis was presented to the Social Policy Working Group (SPWG) on 28th February.  The SPWG has asked that this be shared more widely with Party Group Leaders and the SP and R Committee to raise awareness of this work and to help inform the action plan and next steps.

3.4       The following summarises the key points in the initial high-level analysis attached to this report.  This will be enhanced as the data from the second tranche of anchors is added, strengthening the city’s evidence base on the role of procurement in the local economy.

-       The four Belfast Anchors annual spend amounts to £443m, with 72% of this being spent with suppliers in Belfast and the rest of NI;

-       28% of spend from the 4 Belfast Anchors is with Belfast based SMEs;

-       Belfast anchor institutions procure from relatively large local firms (of those available), but their largest suppliers are based outside NI;

-       A sectoral analysis of the spend outside of NI shows that this tends to be on administrative and support services and manufacturing;

-       There are few current suppliers which are ‘socially owned’ (7 out of 900).

3.5       Spend data has now been provided directly to CLES by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust with Belfast Metropolitan College also agreeing to participate in this second tranche spend analysis. The NI Housing Executive and Belfast Harbour Commissioners have agreed to participate, in principle, subject to further discussion with CLES. 

3.6       Supported by CLES, this will inform the development of a shared action plan focused on the intelligence gathered of the local supply chain and local business environment.  Some of the key questions being considered through this are:

-       How can we use this information about public sector supply chains to better support the local economy? 

-       How does market intelligence flow into the procurement life cycle and how does it influence how we develop tender specifications?

-       How do we understand our local and social economy better through procurement?

-       Are there opportunities to improve organisational processes by sharing practices and develop a procurement toolkit?

-       Social Value Procurement is a key tool but is there scope for Anchor organisations to connect/signpost resources to better support small local enterprises/social economy.

3.7       The next steps for this project are:

-       CLES to provide individual organisational feedback on the spend/market analysis for each participating organisation

-       Completion of the data supply and analysis for the second tranche of participating Anchors in the spend analysis to deepen our understanding of the potential to use procurement and commissioning to support community/local wealth building

-       Co-design and develop a draft action plan with the Network

-       Inform and raise awareness amongst the Community Planning Partnership of progress and the role that procurement can play to build local wealth in delivering inclusive growth.

3.8       Financial and Resource Implications

            This work has been commissioned by the City and Organisational Strategy Department on behalf of the Community Planning Partnership and is covered within 2021/22 departmental estimates and is aligned to the Council’s bespoke membership of CLES held by the Place and Economy Department.

3.9       Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment

            There are no equality, good relations, or rural needs implications at this stage.”

            The Committee noted the contents of the report.