Sustainable Victorian regions: social procurement guide

Overview

Sustainable Victorian regions is one of 7 social procurement objectives in the Social Procurement Framework.

This objective has one outcome:

job readiness and employment for people in regions with entrenched disadvantage.

Employment has a wealth of positive outcomes for individuals. These range from building confidence to enabling more independent and stable lifestyles. It also provides significant opportunities for social interactions and community engagement.

How to improve opportunities for sustainable Victorian regions

This outcome aims to generate employment and help with job readiness.

To understand if the procurement can support this outcomes, follow these two steps:

Areas of entrenched disadvantage are postcode areas categorised as ‘Decile 1’ from the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Review the list of Victorian areas of entrenched disadvantage taken from the 2021 Census of Population and Housing. Check to see if your chosen location is on this list in the document below.

Sustainable Victorian regions social procurement guide post code areas of entrenched disadvantage
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Note: The focus is on geographical location. For this objective, residents do not need to meet the definition of ‘Priority Jobseeker’.

Procurement activity by threshold

Where appropriate, buyers can require suppliers to provide evidence of:

employment and/or operation in an area of socio-economic disadvantage
subcontractor employment and/or operation in an area of socio-economic disadvantage.

Consider:
- Set supplier targets for:
  - employment of Victorians from areas of socio-economic disadvantage
  - job readiness training for Victorians from areas of socio-economic disadvantage
The social procurement model clauses provide guidance on how to seek social procurement commitments. Use of social procurement model clauses is required for procurement projects valued at over $20 million, and may also be used on lower value procurements, where applicable.
For goods and services, the model clauses need to be embedded in the market approach documents. See, Social procurement toolkit.
For construction, clauses related to social procurement (including building equality policy) have been embedded in approved standard form construction contracts.

Also, see Social procurement requirements and expectations to understand what recommended actions are available based on procurement thresholds. Value thresholds are exclusive of GST.

Opportunities to maximise

The Victorian government has initiatives to help maximise outcomes for this objective. If your procurement activity includes social procurement objectives relating to employment, Jobs Victoria can help suppliers to achieve this.

Consider including information on the program in tender documents.

Jobs Victoria

Jobs Victoria provides targeted support to people who face challenges finding employment. Jobs Victoria services are focussed on the locations most in need and include:

Jobs Victoria Mentors in the five priority local government areas of Brimbank, Hume, Dandenong, Shepparton and Latrobe. The service supports jobseekers who are long term unemployed (at least 12 months) or at risk of long term unemployment.
Work and Learning centres to support people looking for work, especially those living in public or social housing.

Consider, if relevant, referring to Jobs Victoria in tender documentation.

Construction projects should also consider referencing Jobs Victoria. Especially those related to public or social housing. Buyers should make particular reference to Work and Learning Centres.

Employment from Sustainable Victorian regions contributes to other procurement-related policies. Outline in the invitation documents that employment in Victoria regions is consistent with the aims of:

Local Jobs First policy, with its focus on ensuring Victorian workers, apprentices, trainees and cadets – and businesses – continue to benefit from Victorian government procurement

Tools and support

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