An apology was received from Cllr Samir Jassal.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2022 were signed by the Chair.

Cllr Lenny Rolles, Cllr Sarah Gow and Cllr Tony Rice all declared an other interest in Item 6 – Corporate Performance Update: Quarter Three 2021-22 in that all the above named Councillors were appointed Directors of Rosherville Limited and Cllr Lenny Rolles was also Chair of the Board.

The Committee were provided with the draft Social Value Policy for the Council.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) informed Members that the Council were legally obliged to consider social value within the procurement process and this policy formalised that consideration. The policy was in its first draft form and over time it would be refined with an annual review of the policy presented to this Committee moving forward.

The Social Value Policy was attached at appendix two to the report; section 4 of the policy set out the Social Value principles and section 5 set how Social Value would be monitored and measured.

In response to Members questions, the Assistant Director (Corporate Services) explained that:

·         The Council are legally obliged to consider how procurement and delivery of contracts might secure additional social value but that legal obligation, only applied to high-value contracts that were predominantly for services, not to supplies or works. However, the Council could apply the policy to all procurements

·         Officers conducted research into Social Value policies around the country and the result was that most of the policies differed in detail; one authority held a policy that was over 50 pages long while another authority had a policy that was only one page long. The finance team conducted research and made the Social
Value policy the best fit for Gravesham Borough Council with the assumption that the policy would evolve over time.

·         Officers were currently reviewing the Contract Procedure Rules and the Procurement Strategy and that the Social Value policy would form part of the Procurement Strategy. The Assistant Director (Corporate Sevrices) did not have the information to hand as to how much weighting would be given to social value in the overall procurement process but agreed to find out and circulate an email to Committee Members once the Contract Procedure Rules and Procurement Strategy have been updated and finalised

·         Consideration had been given to Social Value UK who provided a framework for public bodies and private bodies

It was suggested by a Member that bullet point 4 of the social value principles, Improving local social, economic, and environmental wellbeing when procuring contracts should be moved to the top of the list as it was an important principle. The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) agreed to review the order of bullet points set out in section 4 of the policy.

The Chair praised the policy and pointed out that the Council would do as much as possible to get social value from suppliers as well as high value contracts; the Chair explained that the promenade fireworks were paid for through social value and the policy was an efficient way to maximise social value moving forward.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) presented Members of the Commercial Services Committee with an update against the Performance Management Framework, as introduced within the council’s Corporate Plan, for Quarter Three 2021-22 (October to December 2021).

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) highlighted the following:

• The two annual performance indicators would be reported on at the Commercial Services Cabinet Committee meeting in June 2022
• PI47 – For quarter three, £38,161 was the total amount secured through contractual social value and that figure included funds received from Swale Heating; £15K to fund the fireworks display at the promenade and £22K to go towards furnishing communal areas for rough sleepers

The Chair extended the Committee thanks to Swale Heating for their generous contribution to the Borough and praised the fireworks display which received a record seventeen thousand visitors which was great for local businesses and the community.

The Chair was pleased to see that quarter threes performance had improved from the previous year and was above the 2019/20 level.

To move, if required, that pursuant to Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be excluded from any items included in Part B of the agenda because it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted that if members of the public are present during those items, there would be disclosure to them.

Part B

Items likely to be considered in Private

Resolved pursuant to Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be excluded during the following items of business because it was likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted that, if member of the public were present during this item, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The Service Manager (Property & Regulatory Services) provided the Committee with the Property Information Dashboard and highlighted the changes since the previous Committee meeting.

The Committee noted the Property Information Dashboard.