Other Informationtop
- Additional purchasing information.
Procurement is the process by which the Council obtains and contracts for its supplies and services, whether they are purchased externally or internally from other Barnet Service Areas.
As a modern, efficient Council, Barnet strives to do this in the most efficient, cost effective way to deliver value for money services to residents.
The National Procurement Strategy has focused local government procurement towards e-procurement - streamlining procurement processes to free resources to be directed to front line public services; environmental issues; equalities issues, and SME initiatives - developing small and medium enterprises, and local economies.
Barnet is now looking to further develop its approach to procurement, building on our successes and meeting new challenges.
The Procurement Vision for Barnet
"To support the organisation by using procurement to deliver value for money, efficient corporate support and improved outcomes"
The London Borough of Barnet will deliver against its corporate priorities, maximising its resources across the organisation, delivering efficiency savings, and meeting the needs of its customers while providing value for money. Through continuous improvement of its procurement functions, Barnet can work towards national and international recognition as "a first class suburb" and a forward thinking Sustainable community.
As a modern and efficient Council, Barnet is updating and improving its procurement practices. In particular, the Council is:
- Looking for efficiency savings
- Developing its Procurement Strategy
- Developing strong communications between the procurement teams
- Overseeing the implementation of new technologies
- Working in Partnership.
To deliver this vision and for Barnet to be at the forefront of Good Practice, the Council will need to:
Be a good Council to do business with
Support sustainable procurement
Contribute to the local economy
Ensure procurement practice supports the Councils Equalities Policy
Support innovation and collaboration
This work entails the provision of clear policy guidance to all our vendors (suppliers) irrespective of size and guidance on how to do business with the Council which can be accessed via
www.barnet.gov.uk/business/tenders-and-c In support of the procurement vision the Council has registered with supply2.gov.uk which was launched earlier this year as a supplier route to government that gives the business community easy access via the internet to lower-value contract opportunities offered by the public sector. This service can be accessed via
www.supply2.gov.uk Procurement Objectives and Values
Procurement Objectives
- To support the Council in Procurement at a Strategic Level
- To Develop Consistently Robust Business Practices
- To be at the Forefront of Good Practice
Procurement Values
For the Corporate Procurement Team to deliver Barnets vision for procurement, it will provide a service which facilitates more efficient and effective procurement across the authority. In delivering these benefits, the teams will uphold and adhere to the following values.
Procurement values
Accountability -
the Corporate Procurement Team will take responsibility for procurement in the Authority
Innovation -
the Corporate Procurement Team will challenge current practices and identify new and innovative models for future procurement and service delivery
Integrity -
the Corporate Procurement Team will be ethical and professional in providing support and advice to the Authority and in all their dealings with suppliers
Quality -
The Corporate Procurement Team will deliver a consistently high quality service. This will be monitored to encourage constant improvement
Customer Focus -
The Corporate Procurement Team will develop close working relations with its customers in order to understand and be responsive to their needs
Support -
The Corporate Procurement Team will help Service Areas achieve their goals by supporting their procurement activities
Procurements Working Relationship with the Rest of the Council
The Corporate Procurement Team provides a corporate focus for Barnets procurement strategy, policy and procedures. Its procurement principles are:
To acknowledge the need for and importance of flexibility
To allow a corporate approach to be adopted for contracts which are common to more than one service
To facilitate cross-service and cross-functional working where appropriate, for specific tasks or projects
To have nominated points of contact in each of the Service Areas, who will act as the focus for procurement communications.
The Corporate Procurement Team will provide strategic oversight of procurement and operational support. The role of the team is to help Service Areas procure more efficiently and effectively.
To facilitate communication between the Corporate Procurement Team and Service Areas, each Service Area will have a nominated procurement officer/representative who will be responsible for liaising with the Corporate Procurement Team.
Attachments:
