Partnership and Engagement

Collaborations in Socially Responsible Public Procurement

Steve Connor,APUC

Jim Cranshaw,People & Planet

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What is Socially Responsible Procurement?•to promote employment opportunities (for example, youth employment, gender balance, long-term unemployed, migrants, people with disabilities);•to promote decent work;•to promote compliance with “social and labour rights”, including collective agreements•to support social inclusion and equality;•to support universal access, and•to take into account ethical (fair) trade.

Definition of SRPP according to Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) & European Federation of Public Service Unions

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What does Socially Responsible Procurement look like?

•Consideration of social impacts of procurement decisions

•Supply Chain Corporate Responsibility

•Delivering Value for Money

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Opportunities during the procurement process to promote/embed

•Pre-Tender•Selection Stage•Specification Award•Contract Management

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Risk in supply chains and potential impact – i.e. why bother?

•Not just about “being good”•Managing reputational risk•Compliance with policy and legislation•Organisational Objectives•Supply Risk – it pays to know your supply chain•Commercial Opportunity•Utilising Good Practise•Students

Existing practice in the sector

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Collaboration for Socially Responsible Procurement – no need to go it alone.

• Opportunities- internal and external• Engagement with Staff, Students and Suppliers

ResearchStudent interest

• Information sharingBest practiceAvoid duplication

• Pooling resourcesGreater Influence

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CASE STUDY – APUC Sustain•Working Group

• Universities – Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Stirling, Dundee, Glasgow School of Art

• Students - Edinburgh and Aberdeen Student Associations, NUS (Scotland)

• Experts -People & Planet, EAUC•Considered issues which affect us and what we buy – covering Social, Ethical, Economic and Environmental.•Developed Code of Conduct - use a standard to assess supplier compliance against.

APUC Hunter contract database – available sector wide – is the starting point of the audit process.

Purely collaborative spend on Hunter, 2012/13 full year

APUC/NEUPC/NWUPC/SUPC/LUPC/HEPCW418 Institutions/Organisations580 suppliers£881,000,000 spend

Over HALF of that is with just 20 suppliers; in Libraries, IT, Travel and Utilities.

Collaboration gives Scope for Influence to Change

Non-Collaborative spend is still to be added…………………

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Features

•Suppliers can see their score/place against other

Category/Agreement suppliers

•Suppliers can track the status of their supply chain

•Institutions can see the global location of supply chains and

associated risk

•Buyers can see compliance level of suppliers

•Suppliers only need to complete one questionnaire per site,

regardless of how many agreements/institutions are linked

tothem

•PCA style levels used in assessment

Benefits

•Enables suppliers to build up an understanding of their

supply chain

•See how suppliers compare against competitors

•Understand supply chain risks

•Improve supplier understanding and compliance

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Further and higher education and ICT

1. Concentrated leverage – not used

2. SRPP policies without 'teeth' – you can't manage what you can't measure

3. Deficits in current best practice

4. Students and public buyers are calling for a focus on issues in the electronics industry

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How Electronics Watch aims to support socially responsible procurement in education and other public sectors across Europe.•Eyes and ears of public sector on the ground – monitoring and verification•Europe wide collaboration – common PQQs, contract provisions, monitoring, database

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Barriers and enablers to doing one of these at your institution

‘Aha’moments

1. Socially responsible procurement is easier and more effective if you collaborate with other institutions.

2. Work with APUC's Sustain Initiative to start to monitor, understand and control social outcomes in your supply chains.

3. Join Electronics Watch to start to monitor and improve conditions in your ICT supply chain.

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