{"id":1674,"date":"2024-11-29T15:59:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T15:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peragodevelopment.co.uk\/cyd-dev\/?post_type=cyd_casestudy&p=1674"},"modified":"2024-11-29T16:01:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T16:01:15","slug":"wlga-procurement-case-study-ardal","status":"publish","type":"cyd_casestudy","link":"https:\/\/peragodevelopment.co.uk\/cyd-dev\/cyd_casestudy\/wlga-procurement-case-study-ardal\/","title":{"rendered":"WLGA Procurement Case Study:\u00a0 Ardal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ardal is a dynamic procurement partnership that unites four Welsh councils: Cardiff, Monmouthshire, Torfaen, and the Vale of Glamorgan.<\/p>\n

What was this for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tackles the challenges of an under-resourced procurement workforce at a time when practice change and growing expectations requires more. Much more.<\/p>\n

What was the change?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Procurement reform is an important tool for strengthening and supporting governance and better public sector performance; but it\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n

Cardiff was leading good practice.\u00a0\u00a0 Particularly in responding to the Wellbeing Impact agenda.\u00a0 The Ardal partner organisations recognised the lead and associated their teams directly with the people involved.<\/p>\n

How did it go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This connection with Cardiff was a canny move.\u00a0 Procurement expertise is at a premium right now and there\u2019s no additional funding for the procurement reforms.\u00a0 Partnership allows more to be done with the people already there.<\/p>\n

Experienced staff were able to apply lessons learned across a wider footprint and new staff could be brought on in the process. New tools and techniques for managing decarbonisation and social value which were delivering strong results in Cardiff, are now also doing so across the partnership region.<\/p>\n

Results<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ardal\u2019s core outputs are SEWSCAP, SEWH and SEWSTAP frameworks.\u00a0 These are award winning products and are exceptional examples of collaborative procurement for large projects.\u00a0 Spend through SEWSCAP recently exceeded \u00a31 Billion.<\/p>\n

A strengthened category team structure is allowing greater category specialism and capacity, delivering circa 350 tenders per annum.\u00a0 The key performance factor is not however how many compliant tenders are produced, or how big they are; but how good they are.\u00a0 These were done by people who are supported and can specialise.\u00a0 Under governance with a direct stake in the outcomes.<\/p>\n

How good?\u00a0 A lot of the outcomes are not financialised, they are record only and locally managed to deliver the local proposition.\u00a0 Some can however be expressed through robust financial proxies based on the Government Green Book.\u00a0 For those, the social value pilot programme has secured over \u00a310,000,000 of commitments.<\/p>\n

These commitments are all for things that suppliers are willing to do, over and above what was specified in the contract.\u00a0 It involves providing employment opportunities for long term unemployed, support for skills growth through apprenticeships and employment support, and support for a range of community, educational and environmental initiatives. A commitment means nothing without delivery, so a key part of the work is contract management and ensuring that what\u2019s promised gets delivered.<\/p>\n

Anything Else?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s supporting real change.\u00a0 The benefits go wider than the immediate contract subject matter because they involve new behaviours within whole communities of provision.<\/p>\n

A Carbon Reduction Plan for example would be applied to an entire organisation and its supply chain, not just the part that delivers the Ardal contract.<\/p>\n

Ardal also applies a social value levy on contracts, which directly supports the users of the contract, wherever they are:<\/p>\n