A more strategic approach to procurement should be at the heart of thinking for councillors and decision-makers in local authorities.
With local government third party expenditure totaling around £60 billion a year in revenue alone, procurement clearly has a major contribution to make. A more strategic approach to procurement should be at the heart of thinking for councillors and decisions makers in local authorities because procurement is not merely about ensuring compliance. There is an ever-growing need to engage with service heads and procurement teams on high value-high risk procurements to drive innovation, generate savings and identify opportunities for income generation.
On this page, we have gathered useful resources to help local government with this work.
A councillor's guide to procurement
This LGA guide is intended to help councillors achieve their ambitions for growth and economic success in the communities which they represent and serve, setting out a strategic approach to procurement, frames a set of useful questions to ask, and busts a number of procurement ‘myths’.
Download A Councillor's guide to procurement
LGA/CIPS Corporate Award
LGA and NAG have worked in partnership with CIPS and others to develop the ‘Corporate Award’ - a procurement and supply learning programme that has been designed to incorporate terminology, practices and unique challenges specific to local government.
Learn more about the CIPS Corporate award
Commissioning Academy programme
In partnership with the Cabinet Office, the LGA ran the Commissioning Academy programme, a two-day training course for elected members. The sessions were aimed at leaders, portfolio holders and chairs of scrutiny and were designed to explore ways to improve the commissioning activity of councils through political leadership.
The learning and experiences from this programme has now been collected and published as a workbook for councillors to use to inform and guide your own commissioning challenges.
Learn more about the Commissioning Academy programme
Modern slavery
Modern slavery can take many forms including the trafficking of people, forced labour, servitude and slavery. The term ‘modern slavery' captures a whole range of types of exploitation, many of which occur together. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires businesses with a turnover of £36 million to publish an annual statement of the steps the organisation has taken during the financial year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place:
Visit our Modern Slavery pages to learn more.