Suppliers

The vision for the Shared ProcurementSservice is to simply provide a sustainable professional procurement service which adds value to our stakeholders and supports delivery of cost improvement programmes for each stakeholder 

Our dedicated team of professionals engages with suppliers to negotiate the best contract or purchase, based on a balance of achieving efficiency savings and meeting the social, economic and environmental goals of the council.

A copy of the Shared Procurement Service Strategy 2017-2021 can be found here

Procurement legislation restricts our ability to favour local businesses and it is vital we still ensure good value for money. However, there are a number of ways in which we can support and help local suppliers:

• working with suppliers much earlier in the tender process
• carrying out supplier engagement workshops and events as and when appropriate
• providing skills and support to help suppliers work with us
• providing information about future procurement activity and advertising tenders on the Due North Pro Contract e-tendering portal
• packaging contracts and dividing them into ‘lots’ to encourage the following to tender where possible:
  • local and regional companies
  • small and medium-sized enterprises
  • newly formed businesses
  • the voluntary and community sector
• introducing social clauses where possible

We also:

• work collaboratively with the regional and national market, together with other public sector commissioners, to encourage the market to shift operations and supply chains to our area
• explore a range of commercial opportunities the council can take advantage of, which will further create new economic opportunities for the county

We will also promote sustainable procurement through our procurement activity and the following criteria are the main target areas:

• investment in communities
• ensuring good value for money
• impact of community business
• socially responsible decisions
• community resilience
• volunteers
• reduce demand for public services
• be fair and transparent 

Targeted recruitment and training (TRT) helps to support unemployed residents into training and employment and raises skill levels, especially in the most disadvantaged communities.

The council is able to help and support residents by including social clauses relating to recruitment and training within Northumberland contracts (where relevant and proportionate to the subject matter of the contract).

TRT is reflective of a national initiative, using procurement to build ‘added value’ via social responsibility. This maximises the benefits of procurement and planning activities in terms of providing employment and training to the residents of Northumberland, as well as the social benefits resulting from these activities.

Targeted recruitment and training conditions pertaining to the performance of the contract will be compliant with EU and UK law and will be stated in the contract notice and contract documents.

• Community Right to Challenge  
• government procurement service
• quick quotations supplier response demo
• NE fairtrade
• North East purchasing organisation (Due North)
• social value act

Community Right to Challenge came into force on the 27 June 2012.

The council must consider expressions of interest in providing a service and, where they accept an expression of interest, they must carry out a procurement exercise for the service.

• Find out more on the Community Right to Challenge here.