Agenda item

BCP Council does not have a Social Value Policy nor a Social Value Statement.

In June 2025, CMB convened a Social Value Working Group to develop the Council’s Social Value Statement, aligned to priorities within the Corporate Plan and BCP’s Procurement and Contract Management Strategy.

Scope of the Social Value Statement includes leveraging social value through:

·       Procurement and contract management

·       External offers relating to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

·       Planning

·       Economic Development

·       Community-based projects.

This Report has been brought to Cabinet for a decision to adopt the Social Value Statement.

The Social Value Statement is presented at Appendix 1.

RESOLVED that Cabinet approved the Social Value Statement for adoption.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holders:  Transformation, Resources and Governance

                              Communities and Partnerships

Reason

To align stakeholders across all council services and ensure a consistent organisation-wide approach, aligned with the Council’s priorities, stretching beyond procurement to improve benefits for our communities and residents.

The Portfolio Holder for Transformation, Resources and Governance presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet was advised that BCP Council did not currently have a Social Value Policy nor a Social Value Statement, and that in June 2025, Corporate Management Board had convened a Social Value Working Group to develop the Council’s Social Value Statement, aligned to priorities within the Corporate Plan and BCP’s Procurement and Contract Management Strategy.

Cabinet was informed that the scope of the Social Value Statement included leveraging social value through:

·       Procurement and contract management

·       External offers relating to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

·       Planning

·       Economic Development

·       Community-based projects.

Cabinet was advised that in relation to this the report was being brought to Cabinet for a decision to adopt the Social Value Statement as appended at Appendix 1 to the report.

In presenting the paper the Portfolio Holder thanked the Overview and Scrutiny Board for their consideration and recommendations particularly for their support to approve the Social Value Statement for adoption.

With regards to the first recommendation from the Board the Portfolio Holder clarified that whilst the statement does refer to the councils overall commitment to achieving social value as already incorporated into the councils corporate strategy and summarises elements of that strategy that the real purpose of the statement was to establish how social value would be encouraged and maximised through the councils procurement processes and that there was no intention to develop a new action plan or governance structure for the corporate strategy.

In relation to this the Portfolio Holder advised that Cabinet already receives routine reports which are available to the Board for scrutiny.

The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board, Councillor Kate Salmon, addressed Cabinet and advised that, at its recent meeting, the Board had given detailed consideration to this item and had resolved to submit the following recommendations:

The Overview and Scrutiny Board Recommend to Cabinet:

1.             That an action plan, including details of an appropriate governance structure, is produced in order to clearly outline how the social value statement will be taken forward to cover all Council activities beyond procurement.

Voting: 10 in favour, 2 against (Note that this vote was revisited following further clarification of the motion – the original vote being 11 in favour 1 against.)

2.              That the O&S Board support the recommendation outlined in the report to approve the Social Value Statement for adoption

Voting: 10 in favour, 2 against

Councillor Patrick Canavan addressed the Cabinet advising that he felt that had the Board received the clarification around their first recommendation at the meeting that they would have likely presented an entirely different recommendation which would have potentially included the request for a second phase, and in relation to this requested that Cabinet reconsider whether or not there could be a second phase of the process in terms of adding social value.

Cabinet comprehensively discussed and expressed their support for the adoption of the social value statement.

RESOLVED that Cabinet approved the Social Value Statement for adoption.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holders:  Transformation, Resources and Governance

                              Communities and Partnerships

Reason

To align stakeholders across all council services and ensure a consistent organisation-wide approach, aligned with the Council’s priorities, stretching beyond procurement to improve benefits for our communities and residents.

Recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Board

Whilst the Leader advised that Cabinet agreed with the first recommendation in so far as agreeing that social value extended beyond the procurement process, but that Cabinet could not accept the recommendation to commit to an action plan  and governance structure that would see how that applies.

The Portfolio Holder highlighted during their presentation that there was no intention to attempt to establish equivalent cash values for all other aspects of the councils service which would make serious demands on officer capacity and if not be impractical, subjective and of little value when evaluating service delivery.

Further to this the Portfolio Holder advised that that was better achieved through the existing system of reports and scrutiny already available to members of the council.