This project's final report and evaluation was completed on 22 June 2020

Project approach

The project followed its original outlines, including consultations with local council and their staff in procurement, social and economic development, and of employment and training providers in two localities selection for case studies (City of Charles Sturt and City of Playford). Efforts to engage a third council in our case study remained unsuccessful. Our report identifies those contributing to this project in its Acknowledgments. Contrary to our original plans, it was not possible to use case study councils' procurement data to map social procurement potential. Instead, we applied an alternative model, using published council budget data. Their use is shown in our report. The project also relied more strongly than anticipated on official (ABS, NCVER) statistics to map local opportunities (notably under-utilised skills amongst residents) and local social need. These changes became necessary as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting council work and, ultimately, this study. At the request of several parties consulted in the course of the project - and also to increase the projects' capacity to gather feedback on progress and content, the project's Reference Group was extended from 3 to 7 members.

Project achievements

The project has generated a toolkit as was intended, identifying a rich set of resources for councils and anyone interested in social procurement to turn to. The toolkit is accompanied by practical, real-case examples of methods for identifying social procurement opportunities in council budgets, methods for adding social value to procurement opportunities; measuring that value in money terms; and using official labour market and training data to map local skills. Finally, the project has also identified approaches for matching procurement demand with procurement supply (and suppliers).

Project outputs and outcomes

The project has produced a toolkit for local councils (and other interested parties) to use for exploring social procurement opportunities. It is too early to assess the benefits of our report for participants, which will only emerge over time after its publication and circulation. We hope to be able to monitor this. Feedback we have received from those contributing to the project has been positive and supportive of the project or its output. The author also attended a webinar organised by Collab4Good on 19 June 2020 attended by South Australian and Victorian council representatives social enterpreneurs, where the study was presented in outline. The feedback suggested considerable interest in the work, including request for copies of the report.

Project distribution

SACES will publish the report on its website. We will also send a notification to corporate members and others subscribing to the SACES mailing list about the report via a blog introducing the publication, and forward a link to the blog to Collab4Good.

Performance measures

We will monitor download of the report from the SACES website and log any enquiries we may receive.

The effectiveness of the actions undertaken to achieve the project outcomes and its impact on the Local Government Sector.

We will continue to work with local councils in the future, which will provide opportunities to gather further feedback on the use of the toolkit.