West Midlands Community of Practice

Buyers' Virtual Meetup

On 16th and 17th December we will be holding our first Buying Community online meetings for the West Midlands. These two sessions will start at 10 a.m. and will last around an hour (but up to 75mins have been allocated, should discussions naturally carry on longer). Each session will be led by a guest speaker and explore a range of topics designed to support you and your commercial colleagues. After a 20 minute presentation, we will move into breakout sessions to discuss best practices and challenges - an ideal opportunity to network, collaborate and build relationships.

Please do sign up for both - or only one of the sessions - whatever matches your interests and availability - you are most welcome!

Please note: these events are specifically for buyers within the public sector and discussions will reflect this. If you are a supplier or a contractor, these sessions are not designed for you and we will, on this occasion, have to reject your registration.

Wednesday 16 December

Topic: Social Value - delivering through procurement

Description: We will discuss social value best practice within the wider public sector, sharing the journey the West Midlands Social Value Taskforce has been on from inception to now. We will consider how agreements can be set up as collaborative tools to help the wider public sector improve the lives of citizens. For example, tackling societal problems such as social exclusion,environmental pollution and plastic waste disposal.

Speakers:Carol Glenn, Social Value Programme Manager, Solihull MBC & Charlene Maginnis, CCS Policy Lead

Carol has worked for 11 years within the procurement team at Solihull MBC. She became the Social Value Programme Manager at the Council in May 2019, devoting 100% of her time working to embed Social Value into the procurement process. Through development of a Social Value Policy, implementing the TOMs, and working with colleagues, partners and suppliers to raise awareness of Social Value, they are now starting to realise the benefits that Social Value can bring to the local community within the borough.

Charlene recently took up the position of Head of Policy Delivery at Crown Commercial Service after spending over 12 years in category and commercial roles in the organisation and its predecessors. During this time she worked with colleagues in Cabinet Office and Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport (DDCMS) on the pilot procurement for delivery of social value within CCS.

Thursday 17 December

Topic: The Sustainable Domino - Using procurement as an enabler to achieve your sustainable targets

Description: A thought process on how the domino effect can help you on your Sustainable Journey, how one small change can lead onto bigger results. Larger plans for clean air and pollution reduction by councils and cities can have an easing effect on Local Government targets as well as local economy. Using procurement as your project enabler to achieve your targets, the presentation will cover the various effects of a single decision and how it can lead to a positive outcome.

Speaker: Andrew Smith, CCS

Andrew joined CCS in 2018 as commercial lead in Technology. Andrew is now CCS’s environmental and sustainability guru working hard at delivering a better planet for all and helping on the relentless march towards Sustainability and Carbon Net Zero. Andrew works with Local Authorities, Councils, Cities and the NHS assisting with their plans to deliver a sustainable Carbon Zero future. Andrew works across all CCS agreements to support the development of customer focussed solutions that can contribute to the public sector journey.