ethany Community Support Inc. signed as a GROW Compact Signatory in 2016 and at the time already had a high level of local spend (around 80%), with the remainder mainly related to purchases where local suppliers were not available.
As it was difficult to increase the level of local spend, Bethany decided to focus on the social benefits of their spend. In collaboration with Adrian Hart from Chilwell Consulting (also a GROW Compact Signatory), Bethany included a clause asking for social procurement outcomes. They included a clause asking for social procurement outcomes (from the GROW social procurement toolkit) within a recent tender process for cleaning contract across Bethany Community Support and Bethany Kindergarten Services. Through this tendering process it was evident that GROW Compact Signatories had a good understanding of their potential local and social procurement impact. The successful applicant, a GROW Compact Signatory, was able to show a strong commitment to these principles and demonstrate a real link towards local employment.
Bethany have also started listing projects on Localised and is becoming further connected to local suppliers through this platform and the ongoing networking of GROW signatories. Within their Compact Action Plan, Bethany is identifying opportunities to embed GROW principles within policies and procedures, as well as identifying future procurement opportunities through growth in their programs.
A key benefit for Bethany is that GROW’s collective social procurement outcomes will directly impact many of their clients, and support their vision: “To be a recognised leader in providing services that work in new ways to support children, families and individuals to be the best they can, develop secure relationships and participate in their community.”
