Making Spend Matter Network Launches Procurement Toolkit

6 November 2020

Over the past 2 years, our Partners in Preston (United Kingdom), Bistrița (Romania), Kavala (Greece), Koszalin (Poland), Pamplona (Spain), Schaerbeek (Belgium) and Vila Nova de Famalicão (Portugal) have worked in collaboration to change procurement practices and behaviours, exchanging, testing and adapting practices to enhancing the sustainable impact of their public spend and help build stronger communities. 

As part of this work, the Making Spend Matter Network is pleased to announce the launch of the Making Spend Matter Toolkit. 

The toolkit includes guidance, lessons learned and recommendations from the Network to enable other public organisations and cities to start their own strategic procurement journey. 

It is structured into 4 steps to 'Making Spend Matter' from understanding the strategic importance of public procurement to analysing procurement spend and its impact, progressing practices and implementing change.

The first part of the toolkit has recently been launched and includes an informative video about how a city can use procurement to make public spend matter.

The second part of the toolkit focusses on Spend Analysis as a key tool for public organisations to inform policies, develop sustainable procurement and economic strategies as well as increase knowledge and engagement with their supplier base, raise awareness and change behaviour.
It includes a spend analysis tool developed by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, CLES and a Spend Analysis Guide designed by the Making Spend Matter Network. 

This methodology has been transferred, tested and adapted with the six Making Spend Matter partner cities and the lessons learned throughout this process have been represented within the Spend Analysis Guide to provide cities and public organisations a step by step methodology to accompany the tool and enable them to start their own strategic procurement journey. 

The final parts of the Making Spend Matter Toolkit will be disseminated at the Making Spend Matter final conference due to take place on Wednesday 24th March 2021 and hosted by the Municipality of Schaerbeek. 

Councillor Freddie Bailey, Cabinet Member for Community Wealth Building at Preston City Council said:

"The Making Spend Matter network has allowed Preston City Council to share Preston's Good Practice with our network partners and local stakeholders. The Making Spend Matter Toolkit will enable more cities and public organisations to progress their own strategic procurement journey.

It is more important now than ever for public organisations to analyse their procurement spend and utilise the power of public procurement to support the wellbeing of their communities, the resilience of the economy and the sustainability of the environment." 

The Municipality of Schaerbeek, Making Spend Matter partner and host of the final conference said:

'Preston's Good Practice provided a proofed and attractive method to undertake spend analysis. Schaerbeek was able to draw from Preston's 7 years of experience and findings to develop its own spend analysis methodology. 

This spend analysis approach forms part of Schaerbeek's wider strategic plan to make the municipality a 'responsible consumer' with the objective to develop sustainable public procurement practices, support SMEs and local employment opportunities.'

Neil McInroy, Chief Executive of CLES, said:

"We have been working alongside the Making Spend Matter Network to produce the Spend Analysis Tool and Guide to help public institutions harness public procurement for their city and communities benefit. 

The tool and guide aims to support public organisations with using spend analysis as an evidence base to progress the way in which they think about and carry out public procurement and economic development activities.

The tool provides public buyers with a simple methodology to analyse their procurement spend and better understand its scale, where it goes geographically, sectorally and with different types of suppliers."

More information

• Discover the first part of the toolkit: Informative video about how a city can use procurement to make public spend matter.  
• Discover all of the Making Spend Matter toolkit so far on the Preston City Council website - Making Spend Matter 
• Register to Save the Date for the Making Spend Matter final conference. 
• Find out more about the overall Making Spend Matter project on the URBACT website. 
• Making Spend Matter is a Transfer Network of 7 European cities, funded through the URBACT III Programme and the European Regional Development Fund, exploring how spend analysis can be used as an evidence base to improve public procurement and deliver wider benefits to communities and places
• URBACT is a European exchange and learning programme which promotes sustainable urban development. The programme enables cities to work together to develop solutions to major urban challenges, reaffirming the key role they play in facing increasingly complex societal changes
• The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union by correcting imbalances between its regions.
• Preston City Council actively applies and prioritises the principles of Community Wealth Building wherever applicable and appropriate. Community Wealth Building is an approach which aims to ensure the economic system builds wealth and prosperity for everyone