Our Story

The creation of Procure Plus Holdings (PP) and a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) was born out of a need for a bespoke, product targeted framework for goods and materials for the emerging retrofit market. This enabled the DPS to embed a social value target.

The Local Authority Delivery Phase 2 (LAD2) was a major £300 million programme to fund home retrofit in England, a partnership with the Local Energy North West Hub (hub) also helped deliver a £52 million regional programme in March 2022.

The project funded energy-saving improvements to the homes of people throughout the North West region, helping tack fuel poverty, deliver cost-effective carbon savings, support clean growth, and ensure homes are thermally comfortable, efficient, and well-adapted to climate change.

The hub supported the creation of Procure Plus, providing a scalable, compliant route to market for authorities across the North West to access goods and services. Procure Plus was able to help the DPS deliver excellent value for money, a managed service, and meaningful and quantifiable social value.

Working with the companies, sub-contractors, and construction related supply chains, Procure Plus identifies entry level job opportunities in the area, then work with the local community to ensure these go to the right people in the right areas.

The challenge

Being able to deliver real social value whilst also delivering an excellent procurement and management service is what sets the partnerships apart, and meant the Hub has been able to deliver even more value for local communities, but it didn’t go without its challenges.

Before striking this partnership, we had to make sure that we both understood one another’s requirements and skill set, meaning effective communication was critical initially, and throughout the project. We also had to make sure the partner had the experience and know-how to deliver and manage procurements at this scale and complexity.

The multi-faceted nature of the project and the procurement process meant that a partner must be able to provide an end-to-end solution and support in the delivery and integrating real social value.

Given we were working on a one-year funding cycle, it presented a challenge for the programme to provide sufficient funding for a typical apprenticeship, which lasted two years in length.

Our solution

Procure Plus’s model enabled short courses to be offered to individuals within the community, moving people swiftly into employment. Typically for this programme, training included carbon literacy, working at heights, asbestos awareness and health and safety certificates.

Support is offered throughout the first six months of employment, identifying opportunities for candidates to undertake further training and gain trade-based qualifications. to develop careers within construction. Procure Plus seeks to work with those organisations who support people from many backgrounds including; the long term unemployed; ex-offenders; BAME; NEET young people; disabled people; over 50’s; people with a history of homelessness; and, people leaving the care system.

One of our proudest stories is 19 year old Declan who, since he was 11, has been in and out of care. Having attended a community programme as part of the partnership between Procure Plus and the Hub, Declan was able to gain his CSCS Green Card, Health and Safety level 1, and Environmental Ambassador Accreditation.

This gave him an opportunity to apply for a job with a local business completing retrofit works on residential properties locally. Fast forward to now, and Declan has remained in employment and has been offered funding for further training and qualifications from his employer, as well as moving out of temporary accommodation and start a new life!

In total, the project has enabled 30 people to find employment, 44 trained in retrofit jobs, and also create a housing retrofit supply chain and carbon literacy across the Liverpool City Region.

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