Tuesday

10th July 2007

Leeds Media Centre

Chapelton

Leeds

A Half-Day Research Dissemination Workshop

Influencing the Demand Side

Introduction

Benefitting the Economy and Society Through Procurement is a major initiative, based in the East Midlands region, that aims to improve the correlation between public sector expenditure and public benefit, positioning social enterprise as a key delivery vehicle in acheiving this goal.

The Sustainable Developement Research Centre (SDRC) is working as the research partner on the BEST Procurement Programme.As part of the research dissemination exercise SDRC is holding a series of workshops in each of the regions of the UK. Each event is designed to create a forum for communicating the research findings and sharing best practise with and among leading practitioners in the area of social enterprise development and public sector procurement.

Influencing the 'demand side' is about changing attitudes within the public sector. This can involve those within, and outside the public sector lobbying for sustainable procurement policies. In order for social enterprise to increase their involvement with public sector procurement, those on the demand side also need to be encouraged to recognise the added value of social enterprises within their procurement policies. Implicit in this is an integration of the needs of social enterprises into public sector procurement.

Aims

The aim of each workshop is to communicate the findings from the research understaken in the East Midlands and to listen to and share best practise with other regions. In this way, we hope to build a UK-wide perspective of activity.

Workshop Objective

This workshop will, through discussion and case study examples, explore the policy context, barriers and drivers for change in access to public sector markets. We will hear the experiences of speakers from both the East Midlands and your local area. We invite you to join our discussion.

13.00

13.30

13.40

13.55

14.15

14.35

14.45

14.55

15.15

17.00

Programme

Registration and Coffee

Welcome and Introduction - Paula Denison, Social Enterprise Link and Jenny Inglis, Head of Policy, Social Enterprise East Midlands, BEST Procurement Programme.

Dr Sarah-Ann Munoz and Heather George, SDRC - Programme update

Garry Pyne, Corporate Contracts Manager Northamptonshire Coutny Cuncil, BEST Procurement Programme.

Carol McGrath, Regeration Procurement Officer, Leeds City Council.

Coffee Break

Jenny Inglis, Head of Policy, Social Enterprise East Midlands

Heather George, Research Assistant, SDRC Case Study

Group Discussion, exchanging experiences:

• Successful strategies for influencing the demand side
• Potential new strategies for influencing the demand side.
• Changing public procurement strategies

Close

Venue - Leeds Media Centre T/A Host, 21 Savile Mount, Chapeltown, Leeds, LS7 3HZ

Registration - Please contact Wendy Gallowayon 01309 678111 or email:

wendy.galloway@sdrc.uhi.ac.uk to register for the workshop