Evaluating and embedding social values in procurement East London NHS Foundation Trust

East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) provides community health, mental health and primary care services to a population of nearly two million people in East London, Luton and Bedfordshire, serving some of the most deprived communities in England.

ELFT spends over £500 million a year on goods and services, meaning it has an important role to play in improving the health and wellbeing of the communities it serves, and tackling health inequalities.

In 2020, the Trust developed a set of social value priorities, in partnership with service users and staff, to be implemented through its procurement processes. Central to this approach is to make sure that suppliers contracted by the Trust are doing their bit to support, grow and invest in the local communities.

This project involved a process evaluation of the implementation of these social value priorities in the procurement and delivery of two key contracts. The evaluation, carried out by The Strategy Unit, included interviews, focus groups, surveys and document review.

The evaluation highlighted that there is inequality in expertise and resources between small and large suppliers in terms of their ability to fulfil social value requirements when bidding for contracts. For example, larger organisations are more likely to have experience from other public sector contracts and may have dedicated staff to work on their social value proposition.

To address this inequality, ELFT aims to proactively support smaller suppliers and those with less experience. This will allow them to have a better understanding of how to implement ELFT’s social value principles in practice, and how to develop their social value proposition to better compete in the bidding process. A social value toolkit for suppliers and prospective bidders has been developed.

Other recommendations include consolidating service user involvement in the social value approach and to work with the North East London Integrated Care System (ICS) to develop a community of practice, promote social value principles and share knowledge. Engagement has begun with service users and the ICS.

Downloads/links

• Health Anchors Learning Network case study
• HALN blog: Social value in Procurement: Learning from East London NHS Foundation Trust
• ELFT’s Social Values in Procurement Toolkit

Contact details

For more information about this project, please contact Angela Bartley, Deputy Director of Population Health, East London NHS Foundation Trust.