The Social Value Award highlights organisations that have embedded social and community benefit in their procurement activity and can show evidence of delivering benefits to people in those communities.

SPA’s entry focused on several urgently-needed projects geared towards combating food poverty and social isolation, made possible during the pandemic by its community benefit fund.As a not for profit provider of procurement solutions, SPA reinvests surpluses from projects that use its frameworks back into the community. Since 2017, SPA has partnered with Scottish housing association charity, Lintel Trust, to deliver £520,000 of grant funding and the projects it has supported have contributed over £3 million in added social value.

Among the projects made possible during the pandemic were: a collaboration between Eildon Housing Association and FareShare to tackle food poverty in the Borders; an initiative by West Lothian Council to help SMEs hit by the pandemic to compete for tenders and explore new revenue options; and a project to develop the first openly accessible activity space in Glasgow.

SPA director Clive Feeney said: “The GO awards showcase the initiatives and innovations that make Scotland a world leader in smart public procurement, so to have been shortlisted for this award is a real achievement.

“The pandemic brought into sharp focus issues such as food poverty and social isolation that were already prevalent in some of our communities and we were very proud to have been able to use our community benefit fund to help alleviate them.”

The winners of the GO Awards 2021/22 will be announced at a gala awards ceremony on 3 March, 2022.