Delivering Social Value within a Cleaning Material Framework

On average, Education Authority (EA) spends circa £1M on cleaning materials, catering services hygiene products and personal protective equipment (PPE), with deliveries to over 1,200 schools across the region.

In support of the Draft Programme for Government 2016-21 and EA’s Strategic Plan 2017-27 (EA Strategic Plan 2017), the EA is working to improve the quality of education and enhancing the skills profile of the population.

This framework contributes to the EA Corporate Strategic Priority of “managing our resources efficiently and effectively” and enables the EA to deliver a number of the draft Programme for Government outcomes framework, such as:

• Our children and young people have the best start in life.
• Giving people the chance to do well in life.

To help achieve these objectives and address the strategic aims, when re-tendering for this framework in 2021/2022, EA introduced social considerations within the contract whereby the Contractor(s) would be required to provide unwaged work experience placements for young people aged under 25 who are unemployed and face disadvantage in the labour market*.

This aligns with the requirements of PPN 01/21 Scoring Social Value and the EA’s strategic aims.  In accordance with PPN 01/21, delivery of these social considerations is linked to invoiced spend, i.e. when the total invoiced value across all lots of the contract per Contractor is in excess of £100,000, the Contractor must provide two weeks of unwaged work placements for every £100,000 of invoiced spend (and pro-rata).

* “disadvantage in the labour market” can include: young people with a disability, who are a care leaver/Looked After Child, who are homeless, who are lone parents, who have low or no qualifications, who are not in education or training, or who face other identifiable barriers to learning / career progression, as agreed with the Contract Manager.

An example of one Contractor who has exceeded the invoice value threshold of £100k and were therefore mandated to deliver the required unwaged work experience placements, is Galgorm Hygiene. As one of EA’s strategic suppliers, Galgorm Hygiene have worked closely with both EA and SIB to successfully deliver 145% of the required work experience placements. The delivery of which has been so successful that it has resulted in Galgorm Hygiene identifying further placement opportunities to meet their own internal requirements.

Some examples of the successful placements with candidates meeting the target group to date:

• One candidate came to Galgorm via Network Personnel. The individual had no qualifications and was not in education or training. During their 12-week unwaged work experience placement, the individual was mentored, supported, and trained within Galgorm’s warehouse; picking, and packing orders for schools which had been placed via the Cleaning Materials framework. This experience gave the candidate the confidence to commence their NVQ in Warehousing which is ongoing. As a result of the placement, permanent employment has now been secured by the individual with Galgorm. The candidate has told EA:

“The opportunity that Galgorm Group has given me has enabled me to gain experience and knowledge that has been invaluable at the start of my career. Without this opportunity, I certainly believe that I would have struggled to get employment let alone employment and support to get an NVQ in warehousing. I now work with experienced colleagues who have become friends and have taught me a lot about how to be best I can be.”

• A second individual also came to Galgorm Hygiene to complete their placement via Network Personnel. They had struggled with various issues and identifiable barriers to learning / career progression, prior to commencing with Galgorm Hygiene and had never maintained employment. The individual expressed a preference to work night shifts as an operative, re-stocking the products from the Cleaning Materials framework. With guidance and mentoring from various Galgorm staff, the candidate became a great addition to the team and once again because of the placement, permanent employment has now been secured by the individual with Galgorm.

Delivering these placements have proved such a success for Galgorm and their own organisation that they have moved to expand the scope of opportunities being made available, some of which sit outside of the criteria specified; however, this continues to demonstrate the success of the inclusion of Social Clause criteria within Public Sector Contracts for both the public body and Contractor, as benefit can be realised for all involved.

Colin Fisher from Galgorm Group has advised that due to the success of work experience placements delivered because of this framework, Galgorm Hygiene are determined to continue with these types of opportunities where there are barriers to employment and are currently exploring further avenues with a view to securing a potential work placement path for those in SEN schools in the local area.

Delivery of social value initiatives such as these will continue to aid EA in achieving our vision “to inspire, support and challenge all our children and young people to be the best that they can be”, whilst also meeting our Strategic Priorities, such as “managing our resources efficiently and effectively”, along with demonstrating the effectiveness of social value delivery.