North Lanarkshire Public-Social Partnership launch

Clock-wise from front left: Councillor Tom Maginnis. Shaun Doran, Commercial Director, Bulky Bob's. Kevin Robbie, Chief Executive, Forth Sector. Linsay Chalmers, PSP Development Co-ordinator, CRNS. Julie Hunter, Senior Strategy Officer, North Lanarkshire Council. Yvonne Mcbride Economic Development Officer, North Lanarkshire Council.

The North Lanarkshire Public-Social Partnership (PSP) pilot was officially launched 5 June 2006 in Cumbernauld Town Hall. The key speaker was Shaun Doran of Bulky Bob's in Liverpool who talked about the employment and training places that they have created as a result of winning public sector contracts.

PSPs are based on an Italian system called co-planning. Their purpose is to use the public procurement process to create added social benefits within local communities and to design high quality services in partnership with the people that use them.

Round 2 of the EQUAL programme is funding PSP pilots in North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire. The North Lanarkshire pilot is being led by the Community Recycling Network for Scotland (CRNS) with support from Forth Sector.

The North Lanarkshire PSP is focusing on three services being procured by the Housing Department:

• furniture storage for people who become homeless
• an emergency furniture loan service
• permanent furniture packs

Since January, a comprehensive service design process has taken place. This has involved service users, four Council Departments, the three social enterprises that will be running the pilot and a range of other agencies. When the contract is put out to tender next year, it will contain a community benefit clause which will take into account added social benefits such as the provision of training to people moving out of homelessness.

Iain Gulland, Network Director of the CRNS, said: "A shared vision about how new services should be delivered is the key to the PSP process. This vision is created by the people who will benefit from the services and those who will actually be delivering them.

“The focus on community benefit allows the PSP model to go beyond simply levelling the playing field, in terms of social enterprises accessing contracts, by giving Local Authorities a mechanism to create real social and economic change in their communities."

For more information, contact Linsay Chalmers, PSP Development Co-ordinator with the CRNS at linsay@crns.org.uk or 07980 895182.

Download PSP Pilot presentation by Lynsay Chalmers (PDF file 325KB)

Download Public Social Partnership Launch by Yvonne McBride (PDF file 40KB)

Procurement & Public-Social Partnership by Kevin Robbie (PDF file 114KB)