PSP A Model for Social Enterprise Procurement

Public Social Partnerships (PSPs) are a new, innovative model to bring together public bodies, such as local authorities, and social enterprises to create well-designed services that benefit the local community.  Based on the Italian concept of ‘co-planning’ the model has helped Italian municipalities work with social enterprises to regenerate local communities. Funded through the European EQUAL Programme, PSPs have been piloted in Scotland over the past year in North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Edinburgh.

The PSP process has aimed to break down some of the obstacles which social enterprises face in attempting to move into public sector service delivery. The process also develops services in a way that better meets the needs of service users. Fundamentally, it allows contracts to reflect the added benefits that community organisations can bring to the running of services by including a community and/ or environmental benefit clause.

The North Lanarkshire PSP involves three local furniture reuse projects working together to deliver furniture packs to new tenants in partnership with the council’s Homelessness Strategy Team. The Renfrewshire PSP focuses on services to the elderly and is led by Renfrewshire Council for Voluntary Services (RCVS) in partnership with Renfrewshire Council Social Work Department. In Edinburgh the pilot is about approaches to employability working with people disadvantaged in the labour market.

The objective therefore, of this event is to disseminate the lessons learnt from the three pilots and reflect on the role that future PSP work could play in both the reform of public service delivery and the regeneration of many of Scotland’s local communities.

The key aspects of PSP’s which will be discussed include :

•    The need to include users in the design of services so that they are more user focused
•    Capacity development within social enterprises so they are able to respond to public sector tendering
•    The need for social enterprises to gain experience in the delivery of the service before tendering
•    Consortuim building so that multiple social enterprises can combine activity to maximise opportunity for delivery
•    The use of social clauses in the public sector procurement process

Programme
The seminar will include an overview of the EQUAL funded programme in terms of social enterprise engagement, the perspective of the PSP model from a participating local authority, how the actual three pilots were developed and the outcomes achieved, and evidence of how social clauses can be included in the procurement process.

13.00 – 14.00    REGISTRATION AND LUNCH

14.00 – 14.05    WELCOME AND HOUSEKEEPING
 Iain Gulland, Network Director, CRNS
   
14.05 – 14.20    OVERVIEW OF EQUAL AND PSP
 Pauline Graham, Development and Programme Manager, Equal Project

14.20 – 14.30    PSP – A LOCAL AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
 Yvonne McBride, Economic Development Officer, North Lanarkshire Council

14.30 – 14.40    DVD – PUBLIC SOCIAL PATRNERSHIPS IN OPERATION
 
14.40 – 14.50    NORTH LANARKSHIRE PSP PILOT
 Linsay Chalmers, Equal PSP Development Co-ordinator, CRNS
         
14.50 – 15.00    RENFREWSHIRE PSP PILOT
 Sarah Rainey, Development Worker, Renfrewshire CVS
       
15.00 – 15.15    EDINBURGH PSP PILOT
 Kevin Robbie, Chief Executive, Forth Sector

15.15 – 15.35     REFRESHMENTS

15.35 – 15.50    COMMUNITY BENEFIT CLAUSES
 Karen Smith, New Initiatives Manager, Grampian Housing Association

15.50 – 16.00    LAUNCH OF ‘TENDERING FOR PUBLIC SERVICE CONTRACTS’ GUIDE
 Roddy Macdonald, Head of Social Enterprise Team, Scottish Executive
   
16.00 – 16.20    SOCIAL ISSUES IN CONTRACTING GUIDENCE & COMMUNITY  BENEFIT PILOT
 Josephine Mitchell, Procurement Advisor, Scottish Executive

16.20 – 16.40    QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

16.40 – 16.45    SUMMARY AND CLOSE

 

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