Shaping responsible procurement: An overview of the Sustainability and Social Value team
Welcome to the latest update in our #TeamTalk series, where we put a spotlight on the teams that make up NOE CPC.
This month we’re focusing on our Sustainability and Social Value team, exploring how they are helping to influence more environmental and social procurement outcomes across the NHS and wider public sector.
Alastair Clay, Sustainability and Social Value Manager, gives us an overview of his team’s work.
“My background in procurement gave me a strong knowledge base for this role, along with my two years at NHS England, developing and influencing policies on sustainable procurement and social value, and supporting the team with national implementation.
“I found I was more passionate about implementation than writing policies – that’s where my strengths are – and I have been able to do a lot more of that since I joined NOE CPC three years ago.
“In that time, my role has evolved from being a subject matter expert on NHS sustainable procurement policy to working with external stakeholders and providing guidance and training to NOE CPC member Trusts in a variety of ways – whether it’s through consultative support, in-person training events, or developing social value strategies.
“An example of this is when I developed a bespoke social value strategy for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which won an award from the Skills Development Network. I am currently working internally with colleagues at NOE CPC to develop and deliver a similar strategy for the City of Bradford to use as a collective in its procurement.
Adding value
“As well as ensuring that NOE CPC creates frameworks that comply with both Government and NHS sustainability requirements, we go above and beyond by ensuring our frameworks are as socially and environmentally sustainable as possible.
“We seek to add value to users of our frameworks by providing, for example, comprehensive details on what social value commitments our suppliers can offer, as well as their relevant sustainability and other assurances throughout the time they’re awarded to our frameworks.
“Around two-thirds of our suppliers are small or medium enterprises (SMEs) – the cornerstone of our economy – so we need to ensure we are an accessible destination for them to provide on our frameworks.
“I work closely with the West Yorkshire ICS Sustainable Procurement Group and will be supporting them over the next year to upskill staff across the region and begin to track sustainability commitments. I am now also a member of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP) National Social Sustainability Steering Group, and through this I plan to host bespoke events such as webinars and collectively influence both ISEP and Government policy, which is a great boost to our credibility as a public organisation.
“There will always be competing narratives on the value of sustainability, domestically and globally, but the NHS has done a fantastic job over the last five years reducing the emissions it produces directly and indirectly.
Expanding team
“This month we welcomed Jade Gaffney (PISEP) to our team as a Sustainable Procurement Specialist. Jade joins us from NHS Supply Chain, where she helped to develop training and has both developed and implemented sustainability policies. She is also an accredited Carbon Literacy trainer. I’m really excited for her to be able to bring her subject matter expertise and experience to an expanding team. Jade and I are both Practitioners within ISEP, giving us that extra foundation and knowledge base for our roles.
“Our procurement graduate trainee, Freya Van Every, has been a big asset to the team in recent months and has supported our work with Bradford Council to identify health inequalities and find potential social value initiatives that could help. And our procurement support officer, Katrina Hepworth, has been helping to ensure that our customer documents are up to date with the relevant sustainable procurement commitments and considerations.
“In the coming months, we will be continuing to create a modern slavery dashboard to give us a broader view of the risks across our frameworks and total supply chain. We will continue with our popular supplier webinars, which help our partners in the supply base understand current and future policies. I will also be developing NOE CPC’s new Corporate Social Responsibility programme, which will tie together various social and wellbeing initiatives such as our Charity of the Year, wellbeing sessions, mental health first aiders and physical health initiatives such as our walking group and football.
“Our team of sustainability and social value subject matter experts add huge value to our offering – for our members, our customers, our supply base and our team here at NOE CPC, too. We will continue to ensure we not only meet the standards required of us, but that we do it well.”
To find out more about how our Sustainability and Social Value team can support you, please contact our Support Desk.