Business membership of the Pluggin Ecosystem is entirely free and provides the structured way we not only give access to the marketplace, but also a host of ongoing support and resources for whole business teams (bids, social value/contract management and marketing). 

Firstly, the digital marketplace is a dynamic and real-time environment connected to public buying across the UK - partner buyers weekly releasing their tenders and evaluating bids, supply contracts being awarded and then being managed with suppliers, PR and communications being pushed-out daily and and impact research being undertaken weekly. 

Secondly, the dynamic Pluggin Marketplace is facilitating and promoting impact collaborations between buyers and their suppliers, and the communities they serve; with the data feeding higher-level civil service policy, practice and investment into building heathier, safer and more resilient communities.

The Pluggin Marketplace is embedded into public procurement through TOMs (#3 Social:- Building Healthier, safer and more Resilient Communities).

Where it differs, is that this theme is also aligned specifically to published police and crime plan and community safety partnership objectives (supported by councils, police, NHS and criminal justice services), and other key local needs. The objectives is then to deliver a dual impact (support community-led activities delivering impact, and for this impact to underpin the core community safety and resilience objectives - reducing the costs of emergency services, NHS and criminal justice services).

No. The purpose is for bidding and contracted businesses to switch from a contract-by-contract social value approach, to a geographic and collaborative one which feeds meaningful resources to charities and social enterprises who are operating inside communities and making impact buyers want to sustain:

• Money is an option - with both business and charity/social enterprise agreeing what the money will be shared and how it will be used within the activities.
• Equipment is an option - again agreed between both parties, this could be valuable equipment used for operational activities or perhaps in support of the organisation's back-office needs.
• Volunteering is an option - again agreed between both parties, volunteering can be knowledge exchange where the business shares in-house expertise in activities (workshops/webinars) or supports activities with staff time, or maybe even shares in-house expertise through coaching and mentoring the organisation's teams. 

By connecting public buying across a county/region, through the Pluggin Marketplace, social value is being targeted uniformly into strategic objectives and activities which deliver impact in support of these - a more tangible and sustainable way to transform health, safety and resilience within communities.

The process is:

• For bids, businesses establish a dialogue and agree (subject to contract award) the collaboration and level of money, equipment or/and volunteering to support the objectives and impact being managed by the organisation - this is submitted into a bid.
• During contracts, the collaboration proposal is converted into the deliverable tri-collaboration agreement - locked into the contract and monitored within the marketplace.
• Social value is then tracked and measured, over time and across a county/region, to determine impact.

Yes. The marketplace is dedicated to social value and ensuring a level playing field when it comes to how businesses support community needs and strategic objectives - with the tools and infrastructure to showcase this like any trade show event. Public buyers want to see social value, lifting this off spreadsheets and static presentations into the public domain.

In creating the Pluggin Marketplace with  and for public buyers, this listing of "spotlighted" provisions to support within contracts answers three real issues:

1. Suppliers from outside a county need to know who and where to make contact to discuss social value collaborations which meet the tender guidelines.
2. Public buyers need to support the local provisions which meet the needs and objectives within the communities they serve.
3. Social value needs to move away from tick-box (litter picking, blind monetary donations, business ad-hoc self-designed and pushed solutions) social value, and into strategically aligned business contributions to activities and organisational needs already in place and making impact buyers need to sustain.

Pluggin's specialists will work with any charity our business members wish to continue supporting, we align them to the core strategic aims and objectives required by local buyers in the marketplace area, and then gain the buyer approval to onboard them subject to their meeting suitability criteria in place. Once onboard, a business then continues to provide the support previously operating but now this support is part of the wider objectives.

This is not an issue as many of our public buyers are transitioning from the old to this new marketplace approach alongside the wider public buying agencies.

Within tender guidance documents, the Pluggin Marketplace is featured as the preferred source of social value propositions in bids BUT, recognising other forms of proposal and source of portal reference for this. However, the very purpose of creating the Pluggin Marketplace with and for public buyers is that these legacy portals fall-far short in terms of real-time, dynamic and full-cycle embedded solution enjoyed by public buyers within the marketplace. 

The Social Purchase Order (SPO) is a transitional contracting social value document; auditable within public sector. It tracks social value a business and charity/social enterprise has agreed to - pinpointing, specifying and signposting the social value (money, equipment, volunteering) set-out as a collaboration between a business and a community provider listed within the Pluggin Marketplace. 

At bid stage, this is purely a Proposal. Upon contract award it converts to a collaboration agreement and (with the specifics outlined from bid stage) is then used as a deliverable document - traced from within the Pluggin Marketplace through communications and research.

Yes, the purpose of the SPO is a digital process which gives public bodies and the residents the specific social value details and commitments on a  contract-by-contract level.

For the first time, our communities-led Pluggin Marketplace helps businesses and charities/social enterprises engage and collaborate within a supply contract with public buyers. 

This is an independent environment, aggregating details of community-facing social value committed by businesses within every public contract, making this available to the buying authorities across an area to utilise and compare against the wider needs and objectives.

The Social Purchase Order (SPO) is a digital process secured within the Members Area of the Pluggin Ecosystem; a business membership provides a secure access to the SPO system where the collaboration proposal is created at User level (users being aligned to the main business membership account number).

The business user raises and submits the SPO, which lands with Pluggin and also is auto-emailed back as an SPO to the user for use within bids.

Pluggin, once advised by the buyer of the contract award, converts the SPO to collaboration agreement status and shares this with business user, charity/social enterprise and public buyer. Public buyer, formalising this within the supply contract.

The SPO at bid stage sits at Submitted status with Pluggin. If the contract is not awarded, the proposal is deleted.

The SPO was designed by senior public procurement leaders to meet the new legislation guidelines and governance requirements, providing bidders with a single point of submission (pre-aligned and approved) to specific HOW, WHERE and WHAT social value they propose to offer. 

Evaluation is on the text input by bidders, into the sections asking for details and committed timelines/points of delivery responsibility. This is also looking to see which bids have taken time to innovate in social value proposed to beneficiary organisations, and which have simply ticked a box and not made effort to design a collaboration which can last the time of the contract and add real value to the overall objectives. 

The Pluggin Marketplace is a live environment, where businesses can showcase their SPO collaborations in real-time, talking directly to buyers and also the local residents (stakeholders).

Graphs and tables can still be produced by the business, but the SPO and social value marketing from the business is very much the measure of social value - independently validated by Pluggin and the charity/social enterprise in terms of delivery and % of impact. 

Yes. The marketplace is designed to enable any and all businesses to promote/market their social value into audiences of buyers(and this organically reaches search engines).

Marketing teams within businesses are now central to how buyers and residents see evidence of local social value and the relationships with known providers and tackling big-ticket issues.

Pluggin Ecosystem Limited is a social enterprise, with a very clear and transparent business model which enables us to commercially trade, self-fund and sustain the ecosystem as it grows.

The Pluggin Marketplace is fast becoming the place where businesses bring their social value; as an addition to annual sales and trade activities. Many of the largest suppliers across a range of supply verticles joined early-on in the roll-out of the marketplace. As each of the 44 marketplace areas mature and evolve, SMEs are finding a safe and level playing field to engage also.