Together Gloucestershire Pledge

About Together Gloucestershire

Cirencester and Cheltenham Chambers of Commerce in association with the FSB have created ‘Together Gloucestershire’ to address the issues surrounding procurement, across all sectors and sizes of business. With some of the county’s Top 100 companies and local Public sector procurement working within the group, we aim to understand the challenges, build a roadmap to knock down the barriers, and grow businesses within the county.

Working to connect businesses and localise procurement

Together Gloucestershire is focused on enabling better connections between large and small businesses, promoting local sourcing, providing jobs for more local people, putting cash into the local economy, reducing the length of supply chains, and investing in the local economy.  However, when it comes to the reality of doing business locally, there are many challenges to achieving what seems to be a simple objective.

Our vision is to create a joined up solution for businesses of all sizes, across all industries, to source ethical and reliable suppliers in Gloucestershire.

Objectives of the Together Gloucestershire Pledge

• Create a starting point for businesses to engage with
Together Gloucestershire.

• Outline key values and processes behind local procurement practice

• Share an approach to business, social value and procurement that buyers and sellers can commit to.

• To create a register of businesses who will have enhanced confidence in each other as the project is developed.  The commitment will be to engage and to work towards an understanding of other businesses positioning and challenges in an open minded way.

• Where possible, for buyers to define criteria covered in the pledge that may allow access to lower value tenders and opportunities.  The opportunity will be defined by each buyer business and may not exist at all.  Any self-certified declaration may be challenged and supporting evidence required to develop or continue with a trading relationship.

The Pledge

As a first step in becoming part of Together Gloucestershire, it is important for all those involved to thoroughly understand and commit to the vision and values of the project.

Businesses are asked to pledge commitment to the following principles:

• Completion of basic level entity information, business names, contacts, directors / owner address and so on.

• Commitment to environmentally friendly and sustainable business practices.

• Commitment to raising aspirations and contributing positively to the wider community.

• Commitment to being a responsible and caring employer.

• Commitment to conducting business in an ethical and honest manner, implementing and enforcing systems that ensure zero tolerance for bribery and other corrupt activities.

• Commitment to respecting human rights and ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in your supply chains or in any part of your business.

1. The Buyers Pledge

I. A commitment to constructively understand and engage with the challenges that the project is addressing with the “selling” businesses.

II. A commitment to look at sellers signing up to the pledge and to run a process that ensures that they are in the consideration process.

III. A commitment to work towards an analysis of what portion of their procurement is presently procured locally and then to establish a goal of what that might change to and a plan to achieve that.

IV. To define any low-level threshold that they can identify as an area of procurement that can be made available to tender by other signees of this pledge.

V. A commitment to engage with and support TG events, meetings, and communications where possible.

VI. A commitment to obtain “buy in” to the project values at board and stakeholder level where possible.

VII. To commit to a level of financial support to TG (To be confirmed) that will support the project’s work in achieving the goals that everyone will benefit from.

2. Sellers Pledge

I. A commitment to constructively understand and engage with the challenges that the project is addressing with the “buying” businesses.

II. An honest declaration of the present positioning on basic level policy work in identified areas and a commitment to move forward with those in an appropriate way in general and in a specific way in the case of requirements from larger businesses with specific opportunities.

III. An understanding that, while engagement with the project is an entry level designed to create a forum of discussion and a direction to achieve objectives, it does not in itself create an entitlement to any opportunities but engages the business in a process with like-minded businesses of different sectors & scales

IV. To commit to regular and occasional events and meetings that have the objective of developing the process and objectives of TG.

V. To work toward a committed and documented “buy in” to the project values at board and stakeholder level in the organisation.

VI. Seller businesses need to be committed themselves to be procuring and sub contracting where possible on a localised basis in line with the objectives of this pledge

VII. To commit to a level of financial support to TG (to be confirmed) that will support the project’s work in achieving the goals that everyone will benefit from.

3. The Together Gloucestershire Pledge

I. To support objectives to wherever possible facilitate procurement of goods and services locally to point of deployment.

II. To promote the mutual interests of buyers and sellers in this process in all respects

III. To deliver a “database” styled system that allows those who have signed up to the Together Gloucestershire Pledge to be represented to one another and that will provide appropriate information to support decision taking.

IV. To provide a multi-tiered “marque” that can be graphically displayed as an assessment level against a participants pledge and subsequent evidence and training to allow promotion of both buyers and sellers.

V. To deliver events and communications that will allow managed access between buyers and sellers to build relationships and opportunities and to communicate the project, the buyers and the sellers outwardly in a way that will positively support their own communications.

VI. To deliver an assessment and training function that will allow independent assessment of the reporting of signees to the pledge and where viable to provide training that will allow development of signees to upgrade their pledge values (some element provided within the project, some elements chargeable to the signees where training and development is requested)

VII. To provide an ongoing, functional management team and process that will be responsive and accessible for all signees which will accept ideas, feedback and be responsible for the Together Gloucestershire project development.