Overview for suppliers

The Royal Borough of Greenwich provides businesses of all sizes with a wide range of commercial opportunities. The Royal Borough's priority is to secure the best value for money throughout a large and diverse organisation.

When we identify a need to procure, and have set a budget and defined our requirements, we will select the most efficient and cost-effective method of procurement and follow the procurement route appropriate to the value of the purchase.

Businesses wishing to contract with us should have some understanding of the purchasing process and of the procurement core values operating within the Royal Borough, in addition to where they can obtain advice if required.

Our core values

There are several core values that influence our business needs and contribute to our definition of value for money.

Sustainable development

We promote sustainable development through procurement. This means that economic, environmental and social objectives are pursued together.

We will:

  • develop our value for money criteria to take account of short and long-term economic, environmental and social impacts
  • clearly specify the information we want from prospective suppliers, so that we can apply those criteria fairly
  • work with suppliers to identify more sustainable ways of meeting needs
  • welcome innovative solutions from suppliers, including small and medium enterprises
  • we are committed to opening up our procurement opportunities to SME’s, particularly our local firms.  

Social Value

The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public bodies in England and partly in Wales, to seek social value when undertaking commissioning and procurement exercises.

The duty is to seek economic, social and environmental outcomes which will contribute to the improvement and wellbeing of the areas served by the public body.

In Royal Greenwich, Social Value means: “additional Community benefits over and above core requirement realised through a commissioning or procurement process/exercise, which benefits and contributes to the wellbeing and improvements of individuals or a community in an area served by the Royal Borough”.

For example, in a procurement exercise, we would ask our partners and suppliers to consider how in delivery of a contract, they might provide as added value, benefits which addresses issues of poverty, unemployment and social disadvantage in the communities where the contract is delivered.

Our social value approach intrinsically links our social value objectives to the priorities of the council. The kind of outcomes which represent our social value outcomes and link to our priorities are listed in our Social Value Framework and Social Value policy.

This ensures that where money is spent with Suppliers, we are always making the maximum contribution to achieving our resident’s needs.

In implementing our social value policy and framework, our ambition and approach will focus on:

  • obtaining genuine social value outcomes out of all contracts
  • opening procurement opportunities to local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) and Small & Medium Size Enterprise (SME) organisations
  • achieving Social Value through the supply chain contractors
  • promoting economic growth of the borough.

Equal opportunities

We seek to promote equality of opportunity in all of our activities, including procurement of buildings, goods and services. Where relevant, these issues will be specified through our procurement processes.