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National Social Value Taskforce Chair – a new ‘STAR’ is born
We would once again like to place on record our thanks and gratitude to the departing Chair of the National Social Value Taskforce, Darren Knowd, and warmly welcome Lorraine Cox, who was appointed as the new Chair at this week’s National Social Value Conference.
Lorraine has been the Director of STAR Procurement for over six years – a successful, award-winning shared service based in Greater Manchester serving four partner organisations: Stockport, Trafford, Tameside, and Rochdale councils. A concerted effort to drive performance, capture social value and monitor delivery has seen them being able to deliver 20 per cent weighting of social value on contracts over £25,000.
The conference was another roaring success with over a thousand attendees and saw the official launch of ‘Delivering a Social Value Economy – A Social Value Roadmap’.
Social Value Awards
The conference also hosted the Social Value Awards which saw a number of local authorities nominated. We would like to congratulate all of those nominated and here as well as the winners below:
Public Sector Leadership
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council - Winner
- Salford City Council - Highly Commended
Best Public Sector Project
- County Durham Pound - Winner
Recordings for all the sessions are being processed and will be available on-demand, along with the slides and other resources, shortly.
Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT) User Survey
The Modern Slavery Assessment Tool is now around five years old and the Home Office are undertaking a review of its effectiveness both in terms of technical issues and content. The Home Office, along with Crown Commercial and the University of Liverpool have developed two surveys – one for suppliers: Supplying Goods and Services to the Public Sector and the other for public sector procurement teams.
Please pass this on to any of your suppliers who use the tool, the deadline for the survey is close of business on Friday 30 June.
Vodafone and Three confirmed their much-anticipated UK merger
Vodafone and the owner of Three have agreed a deal to merge their British telecoms networks in a move that will create the UK’s largest mobile phone operator.
The two companies are the UK’s third- and fourth-biggest operators respectively. The newly combined company will, if the merger is completed, have more than 27 million subscribers, leapfrogging EE, owned by BT, and Virgin Media O2, owned by Spain’s Telefónica and the US-listed company Liberty Global.
Energy Bills Discount Scheme
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) commenced on 1 April and runs until 31 March 2024. Under the scheme, the Government will provide a baseline discount to support energy bills for eligible non-domestic customers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As with the original Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), suppliers will automatically apply reductions to the bills of all eligible non-domestic customers however, action is required to get the higher level of support available to eligible Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII), libraries, archives, museums, heritage sites, botanical gardens, and nature reserve activities are included in the complete list of eligible sectors. ETII’s must apply for the higher support through the gov.uk portal by 25 July.
On Wednesday 21 June at 4.00pm, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) will be hosting a webinar about the Energy Bills Discount Scheme heat network support followed by a Q&A. During this event DESNZ will provide an update on the scheme including further information about the bulk upload facility which will allow heat suppliers with multiple networks to submit more than one application at a time.
Green growth opportunities
This week we published our Green Growth Opportunities report which explores the ways in which councils can use their powers and influence to attract and stimulate a low carbon business base.
Local Authority Housing Fund: Round 2 prospectus and guidance – reminder
DLUHC published the prospectus and guidance for the £250 million second round of the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF) announced in March 2023 that will run until March 2024. LAHF is an innovative capital fund that supports councils in England to obtain housing for those who are unable to find settled accommodation on resettlement schemes. The prospectus and guidance published last week does not apply to the first round of the LAHF (£500 million) announced in December 2022.
Value erosion in contract management – what's influencing it? (Government Commercial Function)
Thursday 22 June, 1.00pm–2.00pm | Virtual event
The Children's Services Commissioners' Conference
Wednesday 28–Thursday 29 June | The Hayes Conference Centre, Hayes Lane, Swanwick, Alfreton, Derbyshire DE55 1AU
Pubic Sector Show – public procurement with purpose
Tuesday 4 July | Etc.venues, County Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 7PB
The LGA Procurement team manages several LGA webpages dedicated to your needs. Please email guy.head@local.gov.uk if you would like any information added to our webpages:
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