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Did you know it’s been 5 years since we, Scottish Procurement Alliance, began? Each year has brought new successes and challenges and, I am pleased to say that with every passing year, SPA has grown in a number of areas from our 100 plus Partners to our portfolio of procurement solutions.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved with SPA from our inception in 2016 to now and beyond. In a typical year, we would have a large celebration of our 5^th Birthday, but this year in light of the pandemic we are thankful to be able to continue supporting our Partners and Appointed Companies.

At SPA we support our Partners in the procurement of construction, refurbishment and works projects for public sector buildings. From small scale asbestos surveys to multi-million-pound housing developments, SPA have built flexible procurement solutions to suit Housing Associations requirements.

By working with our Executive Board and Associate Partners to develop our procurement solutions – frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems – we ensure that they are built with their needs in mind. We work hard to engage with and support our Partners who are looking to deliver public sector opportunities to SMEs of all sizes throughout the country. Our exceptional products support the local supply chain whilst providing supplier coverage for all sizes and scopes of projects.

But simply providing the solutions wasn’t good enough for us as a not for profit organisation. We wanted to ensure that we could provide added value services to our Partners every step of the way. In 2016, we began SPA with 3 staff members, and we are happy to say that the team will be 13 strong after our current recruitment activities. Team SPA are always on hand to provide advice and support from procurement and technical advice before the project starts, on-going project support and post project marketing guidance. Through our newest addition to the Group, Lintel Trust, we can offer help and guidance on delivering social value outcomes through procurement and delivery of our Partners’ projects.

In addition to our added value services, we have been committed to supporting social value projects in Scottish Communities throughout the country. In partnership with Lintel Trust we have distributed over £520,000 for use in community benefit projects. To further understand the impact of our Community Benefit Fund we utilised the HACT calculator to measure the impact of £170,000 delivered through it. 

We are delighted to report that this has ultimately delivered over £1.4million worth of social value delivered directly back into Scottish communities. I am looking forward to discovering the social impact of subsequent years’ projects. We will be working tirelessly to drive further investment and social impact both delivery and measurement in the coming years.

Thank you for your support over the past 5 years and we can’t wait to see what the next 5, 10, 15 will bring for SPA, our Partners, our stakeholders, and most importantly Scottish communities

Clive Feeney,

Director,

SPA