4. Inclusive Procurement: Ensuring that the procurement process encourages a diverse range of providers, including smaller and community-based organisations.
Coventry’s approach
The Council has redesigned its procurement processes to better enable smaller organisations to bid for contracts. Subcontracting is considered which can enable smaller, more bespoke providers to be involved in delivery. Where feasible tenders are broken down into lots to enable smaller organisations to bid.
There are three key objectives in the Council’s Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Strategy:
- Provide support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in your communities to navigate Council procurement processes.
- Monitors spend/contracts with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), targeting a year-on-year increase where possible.
- Encourage suppliers to monitor their workforce diversity.
Strengths and opportunities
The Council has numerous recommissioning activities that provide ample opportunities for smaller businesses to compete for contracts. SMEs and microenterprises often align with the Council's values of community presence and social value. Through the re-commissioning of Long-Term Home Support, we aim to foster relationships between main providers and smaller providers, for example through subcontracting or creation of consortia, to deliver services that cater to diverse needs more effectively.
Smaller providers can adeptly deliver services with smaller budgets due to lower overheads and greater local control, even in a financially challenging climate. We have levelled up the playing field by offering all organisations support from our Community Resilience team in applying for funding. This support grants smaller organisations access to local data, information, and bid writing expertise, which may be limited in some cases.
An exemplary initiative of commissioning diversity is the preventative support for people with mental ill health. The Council and ICB have commissioned the Wellbeing for Coventry Consortium, comprising Coventry and Warwickshire Mind, Sahil, and Tamarind. This includes support for people from Black and South Asian communities.