Chair: Nick Plumb, Policy Officer, Locality Contributors: Sophie Michelena, Development Manager, Locality Ian Westlake, Head of Procurement, Bradford Metropolitan District Council This session will look at how commissioners and procurement teams are refocusing their work to boost opportunities for local people and local organisations. What are the practical commissioning and procurement tools that can unlock the power of communities? What are the challenges of culture change within local authorities and how can local community organisations act as supportive yet critical friends? Nick Plumb is Policy Officer at Locality, the national membership network supporting local community organisations to be strong and successful. He works across a range of policy, research and public affairs projects, including Locality’s Keep it Local campaign. Prior to joining Locality, Nick worked for The Challenge, the UK’s leading social integration charity. While there, he provided the secretariat to the APPG on Social Integration. He has also worked for a Member of Parliament and at the Common Vision thinktank. Sophie Michelena is a Development Manager for Locality based in West Yorkshire. She has 10 years’ experience developing and supporting community enterprises; helping to build the capacity of local community organisations to run enterprises and assets. She has also been working closely with local authorities and commissioners to develop an environment where Locality members and place-based initiatives can thrive. Sophie has worked on many community asset transfer programmes in West Yorkshire, social enterprise support programmes across the North of England and, more recently, the Keep it Local programme in Bradford, funded by Lloyds Bank Foundation and Power to Change. Ian Westlake is the recently appointed Head of Procurement at Bradford Metropolitan District Council and has oversight of £450m of expenditure, covering stationery to hospital beds to street lighting and domiciliary care. Ian’s career has been spent in a variety of procurement roles across the public sector in West Yorkshire and he is putting that experience to good use, expanding procurement’s reach into local communities and external stakeholders to develop and deliver a vision that inspires growth across the district and region. Ian is passionate and eager to introduce early supplier involvement, as this is where innovation from suppliers should be encouraged as the greatest potential arises from the earliest stages, when policy is being formulated, when programmes and projects are being shaped and in the formulation of procurement strategy.
Chair: Nick Plumb, Policy Officer, Locality Contributors: Sophie Michelena, Development Manager, Locality Ian Westlake, Head of Procurement, Bradford Metropolitan District Council This session will look at how commissioners and procurement teams are refocusing their work to boost opportunities for local people and local organisations. What are the practical commissioning and procurement tools that can unlock the power of communities? What are the challenges of culture change within local authorities and how can local community organisations act as supportive yet critical friends? Nick Plumb is Policy Officer at Locality, the national membership network supporting local community organisations to be strong and successful. He works across a range of policy, research and public affairs projects, including Locality’s Keep it Local campaign. Prior to joining Locality, Nick worked for The Challenge, the UK’s leading social integration charity. While there, he provided the secretariat to the APPG on Social Integration. He has also worked for a Member of Parliament and at the Common Vision thinktank. Sophie Michelena is a Development Manager for Locality based in West Yorkshire. She has 10 years’ experience developing and supporting community enterprises; helping to build the capacity of local community organisations to run enterprises and assets. She has also been working closely with local authorities and commissioners to develop an environment where Locality members and place-based initiatives can thrive. Sophie has worked on many community asset transfer programmes in West Yorkshire, social enterprise support programmes across the North of England and, more recently, the Keep it Local programme in Bradford, funded by Lloyds Bank Foundation and Power to Change. Ian Westlake is the recently appointed Head of Procurement at Bradford Metropolitan District Council and has oversight of £450m of expenditure, covering stationery to hospital beds to street lighting and domiciliary care. Ian’s career has been spent in a variety of procurement roles across the public sector in West Yorkshire and he is putting that experience to good use, expanding procurement’s reach into local communities and external stakeholders to develop and deliver a vision that inspires growth across the district and region. Ian is passionate and eager to introduce early supplier involvement, as this is where innovation from suppliers should be encouraged as the greatest potential arises from the earliest stages, when policy is being formulated, when programmes and projects are being shaped and in the formulation of procurement strategy.