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OPENING THE DOOR TO BUSINESS
A £1bn annual spend on more than 500 contracts with more than 1,000 different suppliers is a lot to manage.
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Recognising this, Lancashire County Council has unveiled a new Supplier Charter, outlining a new approach to build stronger relationships with organisations that help deliver services across Lancashire.
The council says becoming not only a strong commissioner, but a better client, is key to delivering better outcomes. That means engaging with suppliers and partners earlier, being clearer about future opportunities and creating opportunities for organisations to help shape services before procurement begins.
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And at its first Supplier and Partner Forum, which brought together more than 160 people from across the public, private and voluntary sectors, the council demonstrated its commitment to better engagement with the businesses and organisations it works with and wants to work with in the future.
Vic Dhillon, head of commercial at the council, emphasises the need for better
engagement with the market in outlining why a Supplier Charter was needed now.
He says: “We were very internally focused and we had done things the same way for a long time. I think the marketplace felt it was a kind of closed shop. This was around saying we need to be more transparent.
“We need to realise and recognise publicly
“We are going to put out more expressions of interest saying we are looking at doing this - who wants to have a conversation?
“We need to get our organisation to engage. That is why we need the charter. And we need to show what the rules are.”
The charter sets out how Lancashire County Council and its suppliers will work
Social value is really important to us.
Apprenticeships are massively important to us. How do we make that more transparent and more accessible for people?
that we need these partnerships and external suppliers to deliver to our customers, our mutual customers, our residents. Instead of just going to the market at the end, engage early.”
At the event he called on potential suppliers: “Come and meet us. Come and do some sessions where we have webinars where we can tell you more.
together in future, with shared expectations around earlier engagement, open communication, transparency and long term partnership working.
Vic says the initial response has been positive and, while acknowledging it will take time for a new culture to become embedded, he has already noticed a shift.
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Vic Dhillon, head of commercial at Lancashire County Council, addresses attendees at the council’s first Supplier and Partner Forum at County Hall, Preston
For more information visit
lancashire.gov.uk
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