There's a major challenge facing every elected and appointed official, when it comes to how they resource the key locally led services and programmes as part of their long-term community safety priorities...
There are expected cuts to Home Office and Ministry of Justice grants, which are needed to provide the community grants/contract awards for key services and programmes within villages, towns and cities.
This is a reality for many Police and Crime Commissioners and their Chief Constables to manage - or not.
Key services, and successful prevention activities inside communities face /already are being shutdown due to funding issues.
The business sector, who supply public bodies do not feature geographically in any Return On Investment approaches to address this situation.
However...
A cross-sector solution now exists, and spans 44 areas of the UK.
This involves leveraging the power of public buying across a county/counties to harness contract social value over time, and connect these commitments from suppliers geographically into the very community-led services and programmes which are meeting strategic priorities found within Police & Crime Plans.
Tapping the pull of business marketing.
Businesses who supply into public bodies need to stand-out in new ways - some areas see contracting calls opening every month across all public bodies.
Imagine a way for businesses to be seen for how and where they deliver social value which is linked to the socio-economic development of the areas a contract is serving. Market forces being the motivator for business marketers, and how their efforts help sales.
It's about business and communities connecting and collaborating, through public buying across an area, to harness social value.
Until 2023, it was not perceived that the power of public contracting within a county/group of counties could use the law around contract social value to create a marketplace and harness social value from businesses. Where a business differentiator was HOW and WHERE a supplier is aligned with and supporting the published safer communities priorities of emergency service, councils, the NHS and even the criminal justice services.
Pluggin Ecosystem developed a police-led approach which could encourage wider contracting authorities, to join them in funnelling contract social value into the activities which are already making community safety impact, and which can be sustained through collective social value over time.
Making a marketplace where social value is the business differentiator.
Launched into the Thames Valley in 2023 and now open within 44 areas of the UK, the DICM Social Value Marketplace connects public buying and supplier social value commitments, with vital community provisions and then tracks and measures this to determine socio-economic impact and improvements in community safety.
Within 44 areas of the UK, public buying from business is running into tens of millions each year...
Social value is the legal requirement within all public buying and contracting, but was never geographically coordinated, and there certainly were major loopholes in managing these commitments made by businesses to win their contracts.
Now, the DICM Social Value Marketplace is a free support for elected and appointed officials to combine buying across an area for social value, linked to tens of millions in contracting, can be turned into a way for businesses to stand-out by how they support community safety.
The Engine: A Procurement-centred Model
Pluggin Ecosystem designed and tested their Dual Impact Collaboration Model (DICM) with police procurement teams in 3 regions of the UK - not only for match-making charities with businesses but also facilitating the process of a proposed impact collaboration which can be evaluated within a tender by public buyers. Not stopping there, the model then continually measuring the impact achieved from any collaboration and then promoting this out into the public domain - whilst it is all aligned to a supply contract with any public body.
The Process: Contracting with impact collaborations
The ecosystem technology helps businesses find, connect with and develop potential social value collaborations which are then digitally produced as a proposal PDF for insertion into bids for contracts - a standard process across buying authorities within the area.
The proposal is evaluated by buyers, and upon contract award is converted into an Impact Collaboration Agreement which is then locked-into a supply contract and reviewed over time.
Public domain, a business marketing is the hook!
By connecting the business and community provision within contracts, market forces drive the marketing of a collaboration; enabling updates to be promoted into the public domain - sharing news as real impact stories from inside communities.
This means that residents and buyers can see the evidence of community impact from trusted sources; seeing how it has all been directly enabled by their local public buyers.
Disruption is key!
The UK spends over £300 billion each year on goods and services into its public bodies; social value being a legal required in all of this but a cottage industry has emerged which (until now) has served no tangible purpose when assessed against public spending and crime statistics .
By taking a marketplace approach, linking public buying and empowering communities to validate the business social value received (and its effectiveness in supporting impact), the objective is to provide a mechanism for assisting our elected Police and Crime Commissioners in strategically driving the buying discussions with wider partners towards harnessing social value onto the priorities published for each area.