APPLICATION FORM
Please refer to the ‘2015 Guidance for Applicants’
before completing this application form.
The application form is split over four sections. It is up to you to decide
the content and length of each section, but your application must not
exceed three pages in total (excluding the cover pages).
Please ensure that your application covers the key criteria that we are
looking for and is effectively presented. Any questions relating to your
application or the submission process should be directed to
awards@cosla.gov.uk or 0131 474 9275.
The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on Friday 24 October 2014.
Submitting Your Application Form
Please use our online application portal to submit this application form.
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APPLICATON FORM
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PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:
CATEGORY APPLIED
FOR
4 – Strong and Sustainable Communities
PROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it
published)
West Lothian Council - Community Benefits in Procurement
LEAD ORGANISATION
West Lothian Council
DEPARTMENT/TEAM
Finance and Estates Services
Stuart Saunders
Christine Leese-Young
Community Benefits and
Corporate Procurement
Compliance Officer
Manager
Sadie Trivett
Oliver Bailey
Senior Procurement
Procurement Specialist
Specialist
PARTICIPANT NAMES
OR PARTNER
ORGANISATIONS
Clare Summers
Kerri Murphy
Regeneration and Employability
Solicitor
Co-ordinator
Merle Stevenson
Procurement Systems and
Business Development
Officer
CONTACT NAME
Stuart Saunders, Community Benefits and Compliance Officer
CONTACT DETAILS
01506 281574
Stuart.Saunders@westlothian.gov.uk
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE?
YES
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APPLICATON FORM
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EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has
achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
West Lothian Council’s (WLC’s) aim was to create a Community Benefits in Procurement
Procedure that would allow the council to maximise Community Benefits for all procurement tender
contracts of £50,000 and above. WLC procures around £190m on supplies, services and works
every year. Prior to this project the council had no process in place to incorporate Community
Benefits into its procurement activities. WLC’s Community Benefits in Procurement Procedure has
delivered a unique and practical approach to incorporating social, economic and environmental
Community Benefits into procurement contracts at a threshold that, at the time of its creation, was
unmatched by any other Local Authority in Scotland. WLC are now seen as one of the leading
authorities on Community Benefits in Scotland. Via forums such as the Community Benefits in
Procurement Champion Network and through organisations such as Ready For Business, the
procedure continues to be promoted to other authorities throughout Scotland as an example of best
practice.
PLANNING
What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you aiming to
achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? Does it tackle the issues
that matter most to your community or your organisation?
Community Benefit Clauses are contractual requirements which deliver wider benefits in addition to
the core purpose of the contract. These clauses can be used to build a range of economic, social
or environmental conditions into the delivery of council contracts. Prior to this project the council
had no formal or robust process in place to incorporate Community Benefits into its procurement
activities. In 2012/13 the council spent over £191m on supplies, services and works. Review of
this spend confirmed that 77% of the expenditure was covered by a council contract however none
of these contracts included a community benefits clause.
The aim of the project was to meet the council’s commitment of achieving Community Benefits for
every council tender contract of £50,000 or more. Consultations with local authorities and Scottish
Government guidance confirmed that the standard threshold for Community Benefits was generally
accepted as being £1m. Not only was this low threshold approach challenging but the project had
to ensure that new processes would achieve the best results for WLC without breaching
procurement regulations.
In June 2013, the project produced the council’s Community Benefits in Procurement Procedure.
This procedure outlines various approaches to ensure that community benefit clauses are included
in every single contract tender opportunity of £50,000 or more.
The project compliments the councils Procurement Strategy 2013-2018 and the implementation
and monitoring of Community Benefits is a key outcome within the strategy. The following
Community Benefits 2018 targets have been set as part of the five year strategy:
 90% of contract strategies incorporating community benefits.
 90% of customers rating community benefits training as good or excellent.
 90% of community benefits delivered against target.
The project also directly contributes to the Council’s Corporate Plan and the council priorities within
the five year plan as the Community Benefits in Procurement Procedure will support:
 increase training and skills opportunities;
 increase new job and apprenticeship opportunities;
 increase subcontracting opportunities to support businesses and company growth;
 increase curriculum support opportunities to schools as well as increasing collaboration
between schools and the business community.
DELIVERING
How have you carried out your project? How did you ensure that this was done
effectively? What are you doing to continue to improve?
Work first began on this project in August 2012. To gain an understanding of incorporating
Community Benefits within a local authority, consultations were undertaken with Fife Council,
Falkirk Council and North Lanarkshire Council, who had all developed some experience in this
area. However all three council’s had adopted the standard threshold of £1m for their approach to
Community Benefits.
In November 2012, a Community Benefits workshop was arranged in partnership with the Social
Value consortium Ready for Business that allowed staff from various council services to consider
how Community Benefits could be implemented for West Lothian for the £50,000 threshold. This
forum was hugely successful and from this workshop the project developed two approaches;
evaluation and non-evaluation, to incorporate Community Benefits into all of the council’s supplies
and services contracts. In regards to works contracts, the council successfully submitted an
application to the Construction Industry Training Board in March 2013 to use their National Skills
Academy model which incorporates employment and skills Community Benefits into high value
construction contracts. For low value construction contracts the council would use the nonevaluation approach.
In conjunction with Ready for Business and the council’s own Legal Services, a Community
Benefits in Procurement Procedure was prepared. The procedure brought all these processes
together and provided practical guidance to council staff on how to legally incorporate Community
Benefits Clauses into all WLC procurement contracts greater than £50,000. The procedure was
approved by the Council Executive Committee on 4 June 2013 and was warmly welcomed by the
council Members.
The council appointed a Community Benefits Lead Officer who facilitated a launch event in August
2013 to promote the procedure to council staff. A variety of officers from across the council
attended the launch event that was co-hosted with Ready For Business. In February 2014, a
presentation on the council’s commitment towards Community Benefits was also carried out to both
current and potential council suppliers at a Winning Business with West Lothian Council Workshop.
Council wide Community Benefits training sessions continue to be provided by the Community
Benefits Lead Officer on an ongoing basis.
INNOVATION &
LEADING PRACTICE
Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the future? What
is happening to help other organisations benefit from your approach?
Consultations with local authorities and Scottish Government guidance confirmed that the standard
threshold for Community Benefits was generally accepted as being £1,000,000. The approach
adopted by WLC ensures that Community Benefits are sought for every single contract value of
£50,000 or more. The council’s Community Benefits in Procurement Procedure outlines separate
approaches for incorporating Community Benefits; one process for construction projects and one
process for non-construction projects.
•
Non-Construction Projects
For supplies and services, council staff can either evaluate Community Benefits proposals as part
of contract award criteria and include as a contractual requirement or they can use a nonevaluation template that allows them to accept Community Benefits proposals and include as a
contractual requirement without evaluation.
Construction Projects
For works contracts, the council has adopted the National Skills Academy for Construction Client
Based Approach and this approach will be used to deliver employment and skills Community
Benefits (e.g. apprenticeships, jobs) across a variety of construction project values (over £1m) and
construction project types (e.g. residential houses, highways and roads, schools, house repairs
etc.). For low value works contracts the National Skills Academy guidance is not appropriate. In
such cases council staff can use the non-evaluation approach.
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In order to help other organisations benefit from WLC’s successful approach, the council’s
Community Benefits Lead Officer carried out a presentation of the procedure at the Community
Benefits in Procurement Champion Network event that was held in Glasgow on 14 January 2014.
The event is attended by all Scottish public sector organisations who all commented favourably on
WLC’s approach to Community Benefits and in particularly the use of the non-evaluation approach.
WLC’s Community Benefits Lead Officer also created and currently facilitates the ‘Scottish
Community Benefits in Procurement Group’ on the local government Knowledge Hub website. This
is the first ever forum to discuss and promote Community Benefits in the public sector and WLC
has taken the lead. At present there are 83 members including all Scottish local authorities,
Scotland Excel, Scottish Government, NHS Trusts, Improvement Service and the Scottish Prison
Service. A copy of WLC’s Community Benefits in Procurement Procedure is available to all users
on the Knowledge Hub as well as other information such as community benefits case studies,
issues and lessons learned, contract examples and other community benefits policies and
procedures.
RESULTS & IMPACT
What impact are you having, or expect to have? How are you measuring this,
and what does this tell you? Are you delivering what you set out to achieve?
The creation and continued implementation of the council’s Community Benefits in Procurement
Procedure ensures that there is now a clear process for maximising Community Benefits in all WLC
construction and non-construction projects with a value of greater than £50,000. The response by
suppliers to the council’s non-evaluation Community Benefits Clause approach has been very
positive as suppliers have been more than keen to work with the council and provide additional
benefits to the West Lothian community. Where other councils have not been seeking Community
Benefits in contracts valued at less than £1m, WLC has achieved a variety of Community Benefits
via the use of the non-evaluation approach. To date WLC has achieved the following:
 9 job opportunities and 8 work placements
 Donations to schools such as additional school materials and a storage Portakabin
 Financial sponsorship for community groups
 3 school site visits to supplier premises and 8 supplier presentations to schools
 2 subcontracting opportunities to West Lothian suppliers
As a fully accredited National Skills Academy for Construction client the council can now apply this
model to all high value construction contracts. So far the council has successfully applied the
National Skills Academy model to the New Build Council Housing Programme. The variety of
employability and skills Community Benefits to be achieved via this project were warmly welcomed
by council Members. For the project as a whole the council will achieve a minimum of:
 55 work placements (16 plus years) and 15 work placements (14-16 years)
 30 new jobs for individuals
 30 Construction Curriculum Support Activities for schools
 5 Graduates positions, 35 new apprenticeships and 30 existing apprenticeships completing
 40 S/NVQ for subcontractors
 Onsite Training for WLC Apprentices
 25 Training Plans, 25 Supervisor Training courses, 15 Leadership and Management Training
courses and 25 Advanced Health and Safety Training courses for sub-contractors.
Progress on Community Benefits achieved for each council contract is reported to council Members
as part of a quarterly Procurement Monitoring Report to Council Executive. Direct feedback from
Professional & Corporate Services within the Scottish Government stated that the West Lothian
Community Benefits approach adopted is “commendable as it will deliver the bank of knowledge,
understanding and experience that has been desperately sought, sorely missing and the biggest
barrier to progressing Community Benefits. The approach should generate answers to questions
no one else is asking yet and enable better capability and use of Community Benefits going
forwards.”
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Please limit your application to 3 pages or less and use font size 11or greater
NEXT STEPS
 Have you answered the criteria set out in the guidance?
 Is your application form 3 pages or less. (Anything more, including
appendices, will be automatically rejected)
 Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?
 Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be
published?
 Have you provided details for someone we can contact about your
application?
SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION
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