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Chapter Seven Conclusions and Recommendations
Conclusions
7.1 The study has concluded that the procurement approach adopted by East Ayrshire Council in the 11-school pilot is viable and the social, environmental and economic benefits provide a strong argument for its adoption, either wholly or in part, by other school meal providers. The pilot provides evidence as to the benefits if this approach and also dispels the widely held view that procurement rules provide an insurmountable barrier.
7.2 The approach and pilot have come about in part from policy initiatives and policy guidance, in particular The Scottish Executive's Hungry for Success scheme and Sustainable Procurement guidance for public purchasers. The Soil Association's Food for Life Initiative has proved useful for providing a structure to measure the approach ( i.e. local, organic) and also a valuable platform to promote the approach.
7.3 The main impetus and drive has come from within the council by Robin Gourlay, Head of Service working with Heather Murray, Procurement Officer. The time investment in making this initiative work has been significant and East Ayrshire have reaped the benefit of this investment through benefits to the whole community particularly social but also environmental and economic. The work at East Ayrshire will contribute to the growing local food evidence base which will help other councils initiate change towards more sustainable procurement.
7.4 The procurement approach adopted by the council for the 11 primary schools has achieved the objective of encouraging local suppliers to bid for school meal ingredient contracts. Subsequently this approach has led to local suppliers winning the majority of these contracts. The majority of the winning suppliers are based in Ayrshire and many are producers themselves. Therefore it is valid to make an assumption that the origin of the produce is local within seasonal constraints. 16
7.5 A number of methods were used to encourage tenders from local suppliers, whilst fully observing EU legislation to avoid any kind of discrimination in procurement.
- Splitting the food ingredient tenders into individual lots
- Extended promotion and advertising of the invitation to tender
- The contract evaluation model weighting 50% toward quality
7.6 Although all these methods contributed towards the approach, the contract evaluation model encouraged and allowed suppliers to compete on non-price factors.
Benefits - quality of ingredients
7.7 The most tangible benefit of the approach has been to raise the quality of ingredients, which in turn can only support and encourage the use of more fresh ingredients in schools meals. The increased quality coupled with less packaging has resulted in a reduction of physical waste 17 at each primary school.
7.8 Adopting the 'Food for Life' standard at the 11 schools means that East Ayrshire have monitored, achieved and exceeded the nominal target that 75% of food consumed each week should be made from unprocessed ingredients of which 50% are locally sourced and 30% organic.
Benefits - social aspects
7.9 Less tangible although equally important have been the benefits felt by school children, parent and teachers.
- 67% of children in the 11 primary schools think that school dinners now taste better compared to when they first started
- 88% of the children agreed that they like fresh food, whereas only 27% agreed that they like processed food
- 77% of parents believe that the scheme is a good use of the Council's money
7.10 The evidence suggests that the primary driver for the social benefits outlined above is the 'freshness & healthiness' of the food supply, strongly linked to its 'local' origin. . 'Organic' has been only a secondary driver. This is an important finding, as it suggests that these social benefits can be achieved without the constraints on supply and cost that an organic requirement can create.
7.11 The pilot has proved that these social benefits can be achieved in areas that suffer from economic and social deprivation, dispelling any perception that local food procurement can only flourish in more affluent areas.
7.12 The pilot has proved that procuring local food encourages a sense of community identity and created links between food, the environment and health. The approach can help create links between urban and rural areas.
Benefits - environmental aspects
7.13 Although environmental benefits were not directly measured, anecdotal evidence from catering staff is that the approach has produced less packaging waste at each school.
7.14 The Council estimates that increased participation of local suppliers has reduced the average distance travelled per menu item from 330 miles (in the standard menu) to 99 miles in the Food For Life Menu.
7.15 Distance travelled per menu item may not, on its own, be an established indicator of sustainability; the real indicator should be whole life costs. Nonetheless, some of the supply chains in place are now based entirely within Ayrshire. For example meat supplied by Afton Glen Meat is sourced from animals that are reared, slaughtered, and butchered within the Ayrshire region.
Benefits - economic aspects
7.16 Because the pilot only encompassed 11 schools, any need to employ more staff by employees would not be great. One supplier interviewed in this study noted that they had employed an extra packer. If the pilot were to be extended then this may result in increased employment. There is also the additional benefit of money circulating in the local economy providing a local multiplier effect.
Response to the tendering process
7.17 The major challenge of the pilot has been encouraging local suppliers to tender for contracts. East Ayrshire Council achieved a good level of competition in tendering as at least two competing tenders were submitted for 6 of the 9 lots advertised. The number of Expressions of Interest and tenders submitted was still lower that the Council would ideally have desired.
7.18 This low response can be attributed to a number of issues.
- Suppliers' perception of a high level of bureaucracy and management time required to supply the public sector
- Suppliers' perception of supplying the public sector, i.e. that evaluation is based on cost rather than quality
- Suppliers' low levels of awareness of invitations to tender and knowledge of procurement process
- The limitations that EU statutory tendering regulations imposed on the East Ayrshire Council's tendering process. This precluded some suppliers due to lack of ability to distribute, and also required them to contract directly with the council.
7.19 Many of the issues can be addressed through better communication as well as business support from agencies to address issues such as lack of skills. The perceptions that suppliers hold will have been ingrained over decades of cost-based procurement and they cannot be expected to change 'overnight'.
7.20 It is also important to understand that there are different models of local procurement and the East Ayrshire pilot is just one. For example, authorities may wish to define 'local' differently and may not wish to specify organic produce.
Cost implications
7.21 The overall cost of ingredients has risen from 59p to 71.9p. The most obvious, but by no means the only, source of this increase is the use of organic ingredients. Even allowing for the premium cost inherent in sourcing organic ingredients, the costs still fall within the range of ingredient costs that other Scottish Local Authorities provided for this study. It is probable that the cost of local procurement will be greater particularly when compared to the economies of scale that buying groups such as abc can achieve due to the scale of purchasing.
Next steps
7.22 The benefits of the pilot provide a strong argument to extend this approach to the whole authority starting with the primary schools and eventually encompassing all schools. A natural progression would be to extend the scheme across all primary schools and only then across all secondary schools.
Recommendations
1. The East Ayrshire local food supply pilot and this evaluation provide evidence demonstrating the economic, social and environmental benefits of local food procurement. This evidence should be used to form a business case to roll out the local procurement approach to all primary schools with East Ayrshire.
2. Supplier Development
a. Encouraging collaboration between suppliers to address issues such as continuity of supply, distribution and route to market should ensure greater response to food supply tendering.
b. Greater promotion of Public Sector Food Procurement opportunities at 'Meet the buyer' events or information sessions related to tendering may encourage participation.
c. Business support organisations have a role in supporting businesses in grasping this opportunity. Whatever business support outlets are used, they must promote the right skills with regard to Public Sector Food Procurement tendering procedure.
3. Further research and information dissemination
a. The results from the pilot are applicable to all local authorities whether they are predominantly urban, rural or a mixture. The social benefits that food can bring, be it through health or education, are cross-cutting. These benefits are not always taken into account when decisions around school meal supply are made, as they do not have an obvious associated monetary value. Further evidence of the monetary value of the economic, social and environmental impacts of local procurement will be crucial in encouraging local authorities to adopt new practices..
b. Technical and administrative issues relating to encouraging local suppliers. These include the need to review existing tender documents and product specifications to encourage local supply. Key methods of making tender documentation more 'user friendly' should be summarised and disseminated to Local Authorities, as should different criteria for use when evaluating tender submissions. The use of contract clauses and evaluation criteria should be studied and the results disseminated to other Local Authorities or other public sector bodies that may benefit.
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