1. Importance of Community Benefit Clauses
WORKSHOP ON GUIDE TO
COMMUNITY BENEFIT CLAUSES WITHIN PROCUREMENT
17 March 2011
Alan McGregor

2. THE ISSUE Major physical investment programmes vital for
Regenerating Scotland’s communities
Providing key business, ICT and transport infrastructure to promote economic growth
Always been important to maximise benefits of physical investments
To provide employment and skills opportunities for workless people
To generate sales for local micro/small businesses
Even more important in current and prospective environment where
Private sector investment more limited due to keener assessment of risk
Public sector resources to tackle worklessness, regeneration and other key agendas much more limited

3. VALUE OF COMMUNITY BENEFIT CLAUSES
Forces public sector clients to think more seriously about type of community benefit they want to secure
Raises significantly perceived need by developers and contractors to deliver on community benefit
Quantifies extent of community benefit required and gets away from vague commitments
Forms basis for a process of performance measurement and management through KPIs to ensure community benefit is being delivered effectively

4. VALUE OF COMMUNITY BENEFIT CLAUSES (CONT)
Enables major public sector clients to benchmark their community benefit demands against other major investment projects
Generates a baseline against which public sector clients can seek to drive a process of continuous improvement over time
Creates a measure for comparing contractors in effectiveness with which they deliver community benefit

5. COMMUNITY BENEFIT CLAUSES NOT ENOUGH
Work needed on supply side to ensure employable people and micro/small business able to take advantage of opportunities
Need good project management of relevant public sector services and links with contractors and subcontractors
Essential to have sound system to measure performance of contractors in relation to community benefit clauses

6. TODAY’S WORKSHOP
We will hear from Jo Mitchell about the importance of Community Benefits in Procurement within the policy context
Sian Matthews from Construction Skills will take us through their Client-based Approach Guidance which provides advice to local authorities and other bodies procuring construction services to secure employment and skills benefits
We finish with a panel discussion providing an opportunity for a wide range of questions to be asked – and answered, hopefully!