Addressing Regional Health Inequalities Through Targeted Social Value
NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC), in partnership with NHS England and the Humber and North Yorkshire Procurement Collaborative (HNYPC), has launched a new initiative to assist with embedding social value into procurement and addressing health inequalities at a local level. The project, starting in the City of York via spend associated with the York and Scarborough Foundation Trust, is a prime example of how Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) can work together to tackle defined health disparities across the region.
By aligning procurement strategies with the York Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022 to 2032, this initiative directly supports two of four core objectives of ICSs: improving population health outcomes and tackling health inequalities in outcomes, experience, and access. These objectives, as outlined by NHS England, emphasise the critical need for ICSs to address disparities in health and care services. The York strategy targets specific local health issues such as reducing the gap in life expectancy between richer and poorer communities, lowering anxiety levels, and improving physical activity which directly advances the ICS mission to deliver better and more equitable health outcomes across the region.
Additionally, the initiative promotes environmental sustainability by encouraging suppliers to contribute to local biodiversity efforts, further enhancing the community’s wellbeing. Focusing on health and environmental improvements ensures a comprehensive approach to social value, creating long-term benefits for the local population and their surrounding environment.
What makes this initiative unique is its collaborative nature. Key stakeholders, including representatives from NOE CPC, HNYPC, NHS England, York Health & Care Partnership, and the City of York Council, have come together to create suggested social value outcomes that not only simplify the procurement process where relevant but also deliver tangible benefits to the community.
The team’s efforts go beyond standard procurement practices by focusing on outcomes that matter to local communities. This includes encouraging suppliers to support local health initiatives, promote healthy lifestyles, and create job opportunities for those facing inequalities. These targeted actions ensure that every procurement decision made under this strategy contributes to improving health and wellbeing across the region.
Edward James, Director of Procurement at HNYPC, adds: “Social value has often been criticised as being tokenistic within procurement processes. We wanted to make it meaningful for our buyers and our suppliers so they could see how their actions can improve health inequality outcomes in our local areas. Alastair Clay worked with us leading on the engagement of a strategy for how we do this and has produced a simple and clear guide that will allow us to link PLACE-based health inequality outcomes to our social value asks. This has been a great example of a project that we can truly work on across our ICS with York Council also looking to embed this within their strategy.”
By setting a clear example of how to integrate social value into procurement, the project has paved the way for similar initiatives to come, as well as inspiring interest from other regions and organisations and demonstrating the potential of PLACE-based social value strategies to create lasting, positive impacts.
For more information about our Social Value and Sustainability initiatives, please click here to visit the dedicated page on our website.