Delivering Social Value | Provision of period products at home

To meet the EA’s statutory obligation to deliver free period products in EA buildings, CPS went to tender for the provision. When designing the tender and discussing social value delivery with the panel and project working group, a potential gap was identified that would have seen some children and young not supported.

The panel and working group agreed to include a Social Value Initiative that specified provision of “at home packs” as an example of an initiative that could be delivered, supporting the wellbeing of children and young people in their homes.

Cheryl Matthews, Senior Category Manager in CPS, said: “When building the tender for the provision of period products we were chatting with panel and EA has a statutory obligation to deliver free period products in each EA building. It was identified that there was a gap there for children and young people that maybe don’t attend any site that are managed by the EA.

“We had come up with an initiative to deliver potentially at-home packs for those children and young people that attend either ETA or Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) settings because, potentially, they don’t see any setting that is managed by the EA and wouldn’t have access to the products.”

This social value initiative delivers 350 at home packs for children and young people being delivered by the supplier, Findel.

Cheryl explained that Findel were keen to support the social value initiative. She said: “The result of the initiative that we had written was picked up by Findel, they were one of our successful suppliers on the framework agreement, and they really relished the opportunity to provide the packs, deliver this initiative and were delighted that Findel have agreed to deliver 350 packs for both EOTAS and ETA pupils and that should really cover each child or young person in that service.”