Procurement Strategy

Procurement Strategy 2026 - 2030 - published March 2026

Developed by: Peter Linfield

Approved by: Executive Management Team

Latest revision date: March 2026

Review date: September 2029 to go to Cabinet January 2030

Review body: Cabinet

Contents

Introduction

The Council is committed to delivering efficient, transparent, and inclusive procurement that supports local communities and complies with national legislation. This strategy sets out our approach for the period 2026–2030, aligning with the Procurement Act 2023, Procurement Regulations 2024, and the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS).

Strategic Vision

The Council’s vision is to position procurement as a strategic enabler of high-quality, value-for-money services that deliver the best possible services for our communities.

As a Council we provide a diverse range of services, to protect and shape the environment in which we live, and to create the right conditions for a strong local economy.

Procurement has an important role in the delivery of value for money services and in doing so we need to ensure we align to the Council’s priorities and values. Ensuring we make money go further will be essential to protect our many valuable services.

Procurement will support the delivery of the Corporate Strategy and make the best use of the authority’s resources. Our vision reflects our commitment to sustainability, social value, and inclusive growth, ensuring that every procurement decision supports our corporate priorities:

The Environment
Quality of Life
Sustainable Growth
Efficient Services

During 2025 there has been both a new National Procurement Statement (NPPS) and Procurement Act (PA23). These focus on the need for transparency and fairness and ensuring best value.

Best value is not just about price but includes quality and social value which supports the priorities of the Council. The Council will be able to look at awarding more contracts to local suppliers, depending on value and availability of suppliers, and a focus will be on encouraging more SME’s to bid for work.

On larger contracts, suppliers will be asked to give back to the local area and align with the 4 key priorities of the Council.

Procurement will work with commissioners to ensure that as well as being compliant contracts will provide the most advantageous tender as a whole for the Council and not just on price.

Key Themes

Governance and Compliance

We will maintain strong governance and legal compliance by reviewing this strategy annually and updating it in 2030 or until local government reorganisation. The Council will continue with strong procurement governance with member engagement, portfolio briefings, and scrutiny oversight.

The Council will ensure procurement activities are aligned with the Constitution and Contract Procedure Rules. Significant procurement risks will be identified in the corporate risk register regarding any specific procurement or contract issues and that they are managed proactively.

Equality, Accessibility and Inclusion

The Council will eliminate discrimination and promote equality in all procurement activities.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA is the industry standard for accessible digital content. The purpose of WCAG is to make websites, apps, PDFs, videos, audio recordings, ePub, and other emerging technologies more accessible for people with disabilities.

Equality impact assessments will be built into procurement activity, requiring suppliers to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards, and include accessibility clauses in contracts. Our approach will also promote the living wage, local labour, and inclusive employment, and insist that suppliers have an equality policy and evidence of this will be requested from the supplier.

The Council will:

Incorporate duties under the Equality Act 2010 and accessibility regulations.
Comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Require supplier declarations on conduct and blacklisting.
Build equality terms into procurement documents

RBC is proud to be White Ribbon Accredited. White Ribbon is the leading charity engaging men and boys to end violence against women and girls in the workplace and local community. Further information can be found at www.whiteribbon.org.uk/wespeakup

The Council is committed to working towards eliminating attitudes and behaviours that can lead to violence against women and girls and will promote positive action with procurement partners and suppliers through our procurement process.

Social Value

Every pound spent is an opportunity to deliver wider benefits. We will apply the Social Value Model (PPN 002), integrate social value into contracts over threshold, and encourage apprenticeships and supported businesses.

The Council will:

Apply the Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) approach to consider Economic Social and Governance factors.
Set clear social value criteria aligned with local priorities.
Consider economic, social, and environmental outcomes as per the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.

Newly announced regulations now permit the Council to reserve bidding for lower-value contracts exclusively for local suppliers or UK-based suppliers.

This change aims to:

Support local economies by prioritising businesses within the community.
Encourage UK-wide participation for smaller contracts, strengthening domestic supply chains.
Promote fair competition while maintaining compliance with procurement standards.

In accordance with the Council’s standing orders Council officers may apply the following approaches for below threshold contracts:

Reserve by Supplier Location (Limit competition to suppliers based in a specific geographical area (Rushcliffe boundary plus 15 miles) to support local economic growth, recruitment, skills development, and investment.
Reserve for SMEs and VCSEs by restrict bidding to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs) to encourage inclusive procurement and market access for smaller organisations.

Environmental Management

Procurement will support net zero goals, tackle climate change and reduce waste. Suppliers will be required to actively address environmental impacts, reduce emissions and minimise waste.

Environmental KPIs (as part of Social Value) will be embedded in contracts above £75,000, and we will promote recycled content standards, renewable energy, and low-emission vehicles and encourage the exploration of innovative methods of delivery to mitigate environmental impacts.

Contract Management and Cyber Security

Contract management will be enhanced through centralised KPIs, supplier audits, and performance reviews. Annual reviews will encourage continuous improvement and achievement of strategic targets. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) will be completed before the contract is agreed. In consultation with the Data Protection Officer, the required level of cyber security compliance will be determined.

This may include adherence to standards such as ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, and the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF). All data must be hosted and stored within the United Kingdom. All council staff involved in procurement, contract management, and IT should be trained in cyber risk management.

Supplier Engagement and Market Shaping

We will proactively engage suppliers through pre-market consultations and supplier events, remove barriers using simplified processes for SMEs and VCSEs and we will promote local supply. Innovation will be encouraged through challenge-based procurement out-comes centered approach. Contracts will be packaged to enable participation by smaller suppliers.

Early market engagement will be formalised to shape specifications and identify new solutions and relationships with suppliers will be maintained to deliver value through the supply chain.

Continuous Improvement

Procurement performance will be benchmarked using the LGA Procurement Maturity Framework and Government Commercial Function standards.

Lessons learned will inform future tenders, and collaborative procurement initiatives and working jointly with Councils will reduce duplication and achieve economies of scale and support wider growth.

Action Plan

The Local Government Association’s National Procurement Strategy for Local Government in England 2022 procurement toolkit provides a useful assessment tool to consider the maturity level of organisations in terms of procurement. An assessment against this framework has identified that the Council could improve performance.

The Council will implement the following actions against key themes between 2026 and 2030.

Procurement Strategy Action Plan
Area of Focus	Key Theme	Evidence of High Standards	Actions Required	Deadline
1. Engaging Officers	Governance and Compliance (Strengthening oversight, accountability and training)	Cabinet oversight of procurement decisions Assign Cabinet lead responsibility for procurement Report quarterly to Cabinet and Corporate Overview Group (COG) Approve an annual Procurement Strategy Annual report to Governance Scrutiny Group (GSG) Biennial councillor training	Procurement Decision Review and updates to Cabinet agenda for decisions above £100,000 per annum revenue or £250,000 capital; Biennial review of Procurement Strategy to GSG agenda and any recommended changes for Cabinet’s consideration; In conjunction with our procurement advisors, an annual performance report to be produced for GSG to include current issues, legislative changes and the performance of our advisors etc	April 2026 February / March 2026 June 2026
2. Engaging Senior Mangers	Governance and Compliance (Leadership engagement, process improvement, and training)	Encourage early advice-seeking on procurement Include procurement as standing EMT item Maintain clear procurement strategy Implement robust processes Annual training for senior managers	Procurement update to be reported to EMT as part of the ongoing Performance and finance reporting; Deliver annual training at the Council’s Leadership Forum; Maintain and review procurement strategy biennially, reported to GSG (as above).	January 2026 June 2026 March 2027
3. Working with Partners	Continuous Improvement and Supplier Engagement and Market Shaping (Collaboration, partnership, and shared learning)	Foster collaboration and team-based approach Conduct joint budgeting and service planning sessions	Nottinghamshire County Council procurement and RBC Economic Development team liaising with Chamber of Commerce etc, supplier engagement event (one per annum)	To be confirmed
4. Engaging Strategic Suppliers	Supplier Engagement Market Shaping and Contract Management and Cyber Security (Supplier relationships, performance management, transparency)	Actively manage performance, cost, risk, and innovation Collect, share, and analyse supplier data Define Council’s role in supplier relationships Publish procurement pipeline Host supplier engagement events	Maintain procurement pipeline, publish contract register etc; Host at least one supplier engagement event (NCC)	Ongoing October 2026
5. Creating Commercial Opportunities	Continuous Improvement and Efficient Services (Innovation, commercial focus, performance monitoring)	Set and monitor income and expenditure targets Conduct options appraisals Encourage innovation in service delivery Report performance and implement continuous improvement	Establish income and expenditure targets during budget planning that align with contractual obligations and performance expectations	October 2026 and annually as part of budget setting
6. Managing Contracts and Relationships	Continuous Improvement and Supplier Engagement and Market Shaping (Collaboration, partnership, and shared learning)	Foster collaboration and team-based approach Conduct joint budgeting and service planning sessions	Continue with contract management guidance through NCC and the Leadership forum; Issue quarterly reminders to staff to update the contracts register in compliance with the Constitution Conduct an annual review of standardised documents	September 2026 April 2026 April 2027
7. Managing Strategic Risk	Governance and Compliance and Contract Management and Cyber Security (Risk management, compliance, resilience)	Address external, financial, and operational risks Maintain risk policy and strategy (Standing item on Risk Management Group) Identify high-risk suppliers Implement fraud detection Ensure supply chain visibility Monitor GDPR and Modern Slavery compliance Develop contingency plans (part of departmental contingency planning)	Identify high risk suppliers; Update corporate risk register to record checks that have been undertaken Verify that contingency plans exist for all contracts classified as high risk (e.g. criteria such as handles sensitive data or operates in regulated areas)	April 2026 June 2026
8. Creating Social Value	Social Value (Community benefit, policy, measurement, reporting)	Integrate social value requirements Set performance indicators Embed commitments in contracts Apply weightings during evaluation Monitor and report outcomes	Integrate social value requirements into tender assessment (NCC); Apply evaluation weightings agreed with relevant manager(RBC and NCC); Report outcomes annually against agreed KPIs to GSG as part of the annual report.	August 2026 June 2026 June 2026
9. Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Engagement	Supplier Engagement and Market Shaping and Equality, Accessibility, and Inclusion (Inclusive procurement, market access)	Support SME / VCSE participation Simplify processes Adapt approaches for smaller suppliers Monitor treatment in prime contracts	Work with NCC to simplify and adapt approaches to encourage smaller suppliers to participate in procurement opportunities; Monitor inclusion of SME and local supply chains in prime contracts and report annually to GSG	June 2026 June 2026

Glossary

ISO/IEC 27001

An internationally recognised standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), providing a framework for managing information security risks through policies, processes, and controls.

Cyber Essentials Plus

A UK Government-backed certification scheme that verifies an organisation’s implementation of essential cyber security controls through independent technical testing.

Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF)

Developed by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), this framework assesses cyber resilience against objectives and principles designed for organisations delivering essential services or managing critical infrastructure.

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