‘Equality and diversity… making it happen in procurement’

1. ‘Equality and diversity… making it happen in procurement’ Margaret Burgess-Wood, Purchasing Manager

2. Strategic Objectives • Annual Procurement Report – Finance Committee • £149.2m Non Staff Expenditure • £80m direct influence of Purchasing • £20.47 act in advisory capacity • Finance Division Equality Action Plan - Procurement

3. Procurement Strategy - Key Objectives • Obtaining Value for Money • Ensuring legal compliance in Procurement • Continuing to develop best practice and supply management skills • Operating effective systems and processes • Embracing corporate social responsibility throughout the purchasing process

4. “Embracing corporate social responsibility throughout the purchasing process”

5. Tendering Activity for 07/08 • During the reporting period the following tenders were completed: • 11 EU tenders • 8 below EU threshold tenders • 3 mini bids under OGC framework agreements • 4 mini bids under National HE framework agreements

6. University Spend Pattern • Pareto's principle where 80 per cent of the University’s spend is concentrated on 20 of its supplier base. The high value spend is targeted and managed by senior members within the Procurement team of the University

7. Reducing Supplier Base • It is a University objective to reduce the number of orders placed on single suppliers. • This is very difficult to accomplish due to the specific nature of some the goods and services being purchased. • Organising the procurement of goods and services through large University/collaborative agreements reduces the opportunity for small SME’s to supply to the University.

8. No of Suppliers

9. Financial Year 07/08 Total number of active suppliers used in 07/08 is 4764

10. Financial Year 07/08

11. Financial Year 07/08

12. The Procurement Process

14. Planning procurement – reaching budget holders at the earliest possible time Assess if the contract/requirement has high equality relevance i.e. in terms of all aspects of equality - Race, Gender, Disability, Age, Sexual Orientation Is equality a core requirement ? Examples Catering contracts Building contracts – access to buildings Temporary Staff Agency contracts Non-medical helpers Software contracts – Accessibility to students Printed materials Security guarding Early Stages of the Procurement Process

15. Designing the Tender Process • Decide on Tender strategy • Assess value • Decide procedure to be used - EU, Non EU,etc • Single source contracts • Draw up detailed specifications • Is Supplier Pre-qualification required? • Are there any Public Sector/ HE Sector Agreements already in place

16. Advertising the Tender • Dependent on the procurement process • EU Tender Thresholds for Public Sector                                          • Supplies       £139,893      • Services  £139,893 • Works            £3,497,313 • OJEU - TED database • In-Tend E-Tendering website • Local advertising? Can we use locality as a qualification criteria? • Hitting the wider market place

17. EU Procurement Principles • Open/Transparent process for the award of public sector contracts • Suppliers have the ability to challenge decisions if they feel they have been unfairly judged • Remedies directive in place to ease the process of taking legal action • Illegal to discriminate

18. Supplier Pre-qualification Process • Vendor Questionnaire includes a section on Equal Opportunities • Any supplier expressing interest in the tender must supply this information as part of a pre-qualification process. Any suppliers giving a negative response to any of the questions are excluded or investigated further • Documents are submitted electronically through the University e-tendering system and archived with tender documents

19. Selection and Award Criteria • EU tenders are governed by procurement regulations requiring the award criteria to be declared in advance and this needs to be strictly adhered to. • If Equality is a core requirement of the contract then it can be one of the award criteria and given suitable weighting • It will not be the only criteria, other value for money factors have to be taken into account.

20. Vendor Auditing • Assessing the capability of the supplier • Opportunity to inspect and discuss the requirements • Look for evidence to back up equality statements • Evidence of disabled workforce • Evidence of ethnic and gender mix of workforce • Evidence of environmental and ethical practices • How are these aims projected within the company?

21. Contract • Legally binding contracts or purchase orders will be drawn up and signed. • Equality clauses are built into contracts especially where there is high relevance.

22. Contract Management • Contract Management on strategically important contracts that require active contract management • Regular review meetings will cover any changes to information provided during the selection process or changes to contract conditions • Opportunity to develop new ideas with suppliers • Different from Supplier Management • Estates – construction, building

23. Monitoring and Reporting • Example of question in CRE vendor questionnaire: Is your organisation an ethnic minority business (50% or more of which is owned by members of one or more ethnic minority groups, or, if there are few owners, where at least 50% of the owners are members of one or more ethnic minority groups)?http://www.cre.gov.uk/gdpract/em_cat_ew.html • Given the large number of suppliers the University uses, how practical is it to use this question – • When and how often is this information to be collected or checked ? • How do we ensure it is kept up to date? • How is the data provided to be used? • How can we use existing systems to capture more information, KPIs etc

24. Resources Issues • Can we do more? • Resource issues – small team dealing with many legislative pressures • Suppliers regularly complain about the amount of information required from multiple public sector bodies. Over load ……

25. Purchasing DepartmentThe Open UniversityWalton HallMilton KeynesMK7 6AA www.open.ac.uk