Develop a Social Procurement Strategy

Social procurement strategy

The Social Procurement Framework requires all Agencies to develop a Social Procurement Strategy.

The strategy can be part of the Agency’s overall procurement strategy or a standalone document.

The Social Procurement Strategy focuses on:

• aligning the Social Procurement Framework to an Agency’s broader organisational priorities and objectives
• at an agency level:
  • undertaking strategic planning to identify social procurement opportunities
  • prioritising social and sustainable objectives
  • assessing social procurement capability
  • embedding social procurement in supplier engagement, capability development, and measurement and reporting processes and activities

The Social Procurement Strategy is not a substitute for procurement planning for individual procurement activities.

Planning is required for both the agency’s procurement strategy and individual procurements.

Use these templates to develop and refresh your Social Procurement Strategy:

The Agency’s accountable officer or delegate endorses the Social Procurement Strategy.

An Agency is not required to develop a Social Procurement Strategy if:

• its total annual procurement spend is less than $10 million
• all procurement activities are valued less than $50,000
• it follows its lead department’s procurement policies and practices

These Agencies must complete a social procurement commitment instead.

Select priority objectives and outcomes

A core element of the Social Procurement Strategy is selecting priority objectives.

This enables Agencies to focus their procurement efforts and resources to maximise prioritised social and sustainable outcomes. For example, the Social Procurement Strategy may set agency-level targets to deliver these outcomes.

Priority objectives also help guide buyers on the social and sustainable outcomes to target in procurement activities. However, buyers should make this decision based on the social procurement opportunity analysis for each procurement activity.

The Social Procurement Framework contains 10 social and sustainable procurement objectives.

Agencies should prioritise at least 3 objectives in their Social Procurement Strategy.

Most objectives have two corresponding outcomes. When prioritising objectives, Agencies should also identify which outcomes are being prioritised.

To select priority objectives, Agencies should consider:

• the Agency’s procurement spend profile
  • What has the Agency procured in recent years?
  • What does the Agency plan to procure in the coming year(s)?
• what social procurement opportunities arise from this spend profile
  • Which categories could a social benefit supplier supply?
  • Are there consistent opportunities to positively impact people / our suppliers’ workforces?
  • Are there consistent opportunities to benefit or reduce negative impacts on the environment
  • Which objectives / outcomes do these opportunities most align with?
• the Agency’s portfolio responsibilities and strategic priorities

Maintain a social procurement strategy

Due to its strategic nature, the Social Procurement Strategy should cover multiple years (e.g. 3 years). Agencies must refresh the Social Procurement Strategy when it expires to ensure continuity.

Agencies should review their Social Procurement Strategy at least annually. An Agency may align this process with its annual review of the Agency’s procurement strategy under the goods and services (see Governance policy, section 1.2).

As the Agency advances in social procurement, its activities and goals in this area will also progress.

Check the Social Procurement Strategy to see if it is consistent with:

• the Agency’s mission, values, and objectives
• the Agency’s procurement strategy and forward procurement plan
• related Agency policies
• broader government objectives (e.g. other procurement-related policies)

For example, in its first Social Procurement Strategy, an Agency may set a target of 1% of Agency procurement spend with social benefit suppliers. If the Agency meets or exceeds this target, the refreshed strategy may increase this target to 2% or more.

Assess social procurement capability

A capability self-assessment is another core element of the Social Procurement Strategy. The Accountable Officer or delegate endorses the self-assessment. Agencies should review their assessment at least annually.

The assessment helps Agencies identify gaps in their social procurement capability and implement strategies to close them over time. This helps inform the Agency’s capability development plan, which forms part of the Agency’s procurement strategy under the goods and services policies.

For further information, see the see the Social procurement self-assessment template.

Q: Are we keeping the toolkit?

Help and Support

For more information about social procurement, please contact Buying for Vic.