SC20090 - Digital Social Value Platform

Kent County Council (the Council) is the largest local authority in England by population, covering an area of 3,500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of over £1bn on goods and services and a population of 1.5m. The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 320 parish/town/community councils.

The Council is committed to delivering social value and improving the social, economic, and environmental wellbeing of the county. As an extension to this, the Council champions active and connected communities and recognises the important role we have to play in supporting the VCSE sector in its endeavours to improve the lives of the county's residents.

The Council has an established track record of bringing together the VCSE, private and public sectors in collaboration to deliver improved outcomes for Kent's residents. However, the Council believes that there is further potential to build on its existing offer of support to the VCSE sector and, through the Council's procurement processes, to broker a more direct link between VCSEs that require support and organisations able to offer it.

In order to achieve this objective, the Council requires a Digital Social Value Platform (DSVP), which will become an integral part of the Council's procurement process. The platform must enable VCSEs across Kent to request and secure the resources they need from other organisations who are bidding for the Council's contracts and which are in a position to provide those resources.

Practically, as a part of the Council's request for social value during a procurement process, bidders for the Council's contracts would be directed to the DSVP where they would select those resources requested by VCSEs that they can deliver during the life of the contract.

The DSVP will encourage competition between those bidders offering resources in order to maximise what is ultimately committed. Based on criteria, priorities and weightings set by the Council, the DSVP will automatically and objectively evaluate and score what has been offered in order to help determine the winner on that element of the tender based on which bidder offers the most in terms of overall value. Commitments from the successful bidder will form a part of its contract with the Council and the DSVP will provide ongoing monitoring data to help the Council track the successful delivery of the resources.

It is a requirement that this platform is available to be used within six weeks of contract award in order to ensure that the Council is able to extend this offer of additional support to VCSEs as part of its wider package of support following the COVID-19 pandemic.