West London Councils Set Up Joint Procurement Board
West London Councils Set Up Joint Procurement Board
Nine west London councils* have set up an innovative, high level Procurement Board, supported by a Procurement Hub staffed with procurement experts, to drive and underpin collaborative procurement initiatives between them.
The councils sitting on the Board provide services to over 2.2m residents and spend around £2.3 billion a year on goods and services from external suppliers. Through working together on joint procurements under the leadership of the new Board, the councils believe that they can achieve better value for money from their purchasing and improve the quality of services that they deliver.
The Board, which held its first meeting at the end of February, comprises representatives from each council including leading councillors, a council chief executive (on behalf of the other Chief Executives) and Executive Directors from key services. It will have a strategic overview of all major purchasing, the progress of collaborative procurements and relationships with major common suppliers.
The Board will be supported by a new Procurement Hub, staffed by a Head of Collaborative Procurement and two senior procurement experts. They will initially focus on new joint projects in property, environmental and business services areas with the aim of achieving £15.7m of savings by 2015. The establishment of the Board and the Hub builds on the councils’ experience in successfully working together since 2009 on their adults and children’s commissioning and procurement programmes through a Social Care Efficiencies Unit.
Commenting on this initiative, Mary Harpley, Chief Executive of the London Borough of Hounslow and programme sponsor for the West London Chief Executives, said: “This is a hugely exciting and very important initiative which I and my colleagues believe will deliver significant benefits to our residents through more effective procurement of goods and services, leading to lower costs and more productive relationships with suppliers.
“It’s a very timely demonstration in the current economic climate that local government can work collaboratively to realise efficiencies without impacting adversely on service levels and quality.”
*The participant councils on the West London Procurement Board are the West London Alliance boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, , Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow with Hammersmith and Fulham Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City Council participating on a project by project basis.
To download a PDF copy of the Press release including Notes for Editors click here.