The Strategic Procurement Partnership for Oxfordshire

A Strategy to Benefit the whole of Oxfordshire

The Strategic Procurement Partnership for Oxfordshire (SPPO) aims to develop a strategic and collaborative public procurement programme for Oxfordshire.

Working together rather than bound by a contract

SPPO is not a legal partnership but an agreement between the following authorities:

• Cherwell District Council
• Oxford City Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• South Oxfordshire District Council
• Vale of White Horse District Council
• West Oxfordshire District Council

The partners are able to opt in or out of any joint project as best fits the needs of their organisation.

Aims

The SPPO's strategic aims are to:

• achieve better value for money and/or make savings through the joint purchasing of common commodities
• achieve better value for money and/or savings in shared services through alignment of contracts and tenders and sharing of risk
• make it easier for suppliers to do business with councils
• develop a common supplier base
• import and share good procurement practice
• support the delivery of the National Procurement Strategy and the South East Regional Centre of Excellence objectives
• create capacity through joint delivery of procurement projects 
• reduce the in-house processing costs of orders and invoices, through back office improvement and e-marketplace solutions

Objectives

The SPPO's specific objectives are to:

• generate deliverable and measurable financial savings for all through the setting up of joint procurement contracts
• produce a joint guide for suppliers on "how to sell to Oxfordshire Councils"
• develop options for E-commerce solutions in conjunction with the Countywide Implementing Electronic Government group
• generate deliverable and measurable process savings through more efficient "procure to pay" processing
• align each authority's procurement strategy with the strategic aims of the group

Action Plan

One of the first activities of SPPO was the development of an Action Plan. This consists of a set of agreed tasks and priorities derived from each of the strategic aims and objectives listed above.

South East Business Portal

The Portal is designed to allow the sharing of information about existing contracts and forthcoming tendering opportunities across the 74 councils and 9 fire and rescue services of the south east region.

Visit the South East Buiness Portal website for full details.

Working with local businesses

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) recently published the results of a survey of 74 local authorities in the South East. The aim was to identify how local authorities structure their procurement practices and processes in order to encourage small businesses to bid for public sector contracts. 52 of the authorities replied - and Oxford City Council came in first place.

To find out more about the partnership and Oxfordshire Procurement Hub, please contact our Procurement Hub Officer on 01865 252778 or Email us.

To find out more about how Oxford City Council goes about the procurement process, follow the link to the How to Sell to the Council page.

Page last reviewed 23 April 2012