The Flexible Framework
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What is the Flexible Framework?
The Sustainable Procurement National Action Plan, also known as Procuring the Future, provides a key part of the practical framework by which the UK Government seeks to achieve its goal of being amongst the European Union (EU) leaders in sustainable procurement.
The Flexible Framework has been developed to support public sector organisations in assessing the sustainability of their procurement activity and to provide them with a clear route to more sustainable procurement practices. It covers five themes:
- People
- Policy, strategy & communication
- Procurement process
- Engaging suppliers
- Measurement & results
Each of the five themes have a further five ‘levels’:
- Foundation
- Embed
- Practice
- Enhance
- Lead
Procurement Lincolnshire achieved level 3 (‘Practice’ level) of the Flexible Framework in March 2010. For details on what this work programme entails please see the attachment on the bottom of the page which provides a ‘snap-shot’ of the activities Procurement Lincolnshire engaged in to support attainment of the ‘Practice’ Level.
Why is it important?
The Flexible Framework provides us with a simple structure by which we can both measure ourselves against; it also enables us to draw comparisons ourselves with other Councils. By doing this, we can use the Flexible Framework as a key tool to target our focus towards areas in need of improvement and to constantly strive to better our strengths. There are many other reasons why Procurement Lincolnshire and the partner authorities have signed up to the Flexible Framework including business efficiencies, reputation, and customer/stakeholder desires - all of which are important to us as an organisation.
What are we doing about it?
We have strongly embedded the targets set by the Flexible framework into our Sustainable Procurement Strategy and in our Procurement Action Plan (of which, both documents can be found as attachments on the ‘Sustainable Procurement’ page). Aspects of these both heavily appear in our day-to-day workloads, from our standard tendering documents which address sustainability in the selection/award criteria through to our training events for local SMEs. There is much more to be achieved, but Procurement Lincolnshire and the partner authorities are already making good progress towards our ambitious aims in regard to sustainable procurement.
