Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

            Councillor Mullin introduced the Social Value Strategy report which demonstrated how social value looked beyond the financial cost of a service and considered what wider additional benefits to the community could be guaranteed. 

Implementing the Social Value Strategy would be a key element in delivering the Well-being of Future Generations Act and would enable the Council and partners to create new resources for priority work streams.

The Enterprise and Regeneration Manager explained that a review of the original Community Benefits Strategy had been undertaken and a broader approach, outlined in the report, was proposed to generate social value from Council and partner activities.

The revised strategy challenged partners, services and suppliers to consider how they could generate additional value for the communities of Flintshire and how that could be measured.  The approach would be a key tool in helping the Council and its partners to demonstrate how the Well-being of Future Generations Act was being delivered.  The process of considering how wider benefits could be realised during service design and the generation of measurable social value would provide a robust evidence base.

The initial focus would be on generating social value through the procurement process as that offered the greatest and most immediate opportunities to deliver considerable social value.  Developing an effective approach would require new resources, details of which were outlined in the report.

Councillor Shotton commented on examples of where Flintshire had already benefited from social, citing 21^st Century Schools, Social Care and the council house building programme.  The Council wished to unlock further community benefits which this strategy would help to deliver.

Councillor Thomas commented on the possible opportunity to run community transport buses through this strategy.

The Chief Executive referred to a comment at a recent meeting of Organisational Change Overview and Scrutiny Committee from the Chair, Councillor Mackie, on whether social value would be open to challenge – this would be discussed with the Chief Officer (Governance) and the Procurement Team.

Councillor Butler commented on the opportunities for social enterprise on Deeside Industrial Park, such as restaurants being made available to meet the demand where there were a large number of employees.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the draft Social Value Strategy be approved; and

(b)       That the release of reserves funding to deliver the Social Value Strategy, including the recruitment of a lead officer, be approved.