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Procurement refers to the full range of activities and processes related to the purchase of

goods, services and works in organisations either in public, private or nonprofit sector

organisations (reference). The purchases could relate to very routine, small items such as

office equipment or stationery, right up to highly strategic and costly purchases such as

contracting out entire services. Social Procurement then, relates to how the purchase of goods,

services and works by organisationscan generate positive social impacts. Of course there are

some organisations particularly in the public sector, that intentionally and directly purchase

social impact by procuring social services (such as health services, communityservices and

welfare services) (reference). However, there is an increasing interest in how procurement

processes more generally could consider and generate social impact. To date this has often

focused on ensuring that supply chains do no harm ( reference).

Social procurement in this context refers to the inclusion of social matters into

theprocurement and purchase of goods, services and works that ordinarily do not have such

requirements as defined or measured outcomes (Anthony Collins, 2006).

There are two major reasons for adding procurement into the range of ways in which public,

private and nonprofit sector organisations can generate social impact. First, social

procurement provides a mechanism for linking and integrating social and economic agendas,

both in public policy terms and in broader societal and commercial terms (reference). This

effectively means that social outcomes are not relegated to social policy agendas, to welfare

departments or to CSR sections within organizations. Rather, social outcomes become part of

the business of organizations and are considered directly within business decisions

(MCCrudden,2007).In this way social outcomes are brought to the centre or mainstream and

are considered alongside other core business agendas. The artificial separations of social

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policy from economic policy and commercial agendas are broken down and social outcomes

can then be considered across whole organization. They become everyones business, not just

the business of social policy specialist, the CSR team or social workers (reference). Second, it

is clear that in order to address complex social issues including poverty and long term

unemployment, new strategies and approaches are needed. These involve new external

combinations of stakeholders e.g. partnerships between nonprofit, private and public bodies;

new combinations of functions within organizations; and more complex analyses of how to

link welfare approaches with structural changes to ensure that people have optimum

opportunities and capabilities to move out of disadvantaged circumstances (reference).

Social procurement is one way in which public bodies, corporations and nonprofit

organisations canensure that they are opening direct pathways for economic and social

inclusion in addition to ensuring that the worst impacts of exclusion are ameliorated. Social

procurement sits alongside other asset based approaches to social exclusion, building on

peoples capacities, harnessing people s potentials and redistributing wealth directly back into

communities. In this way resources flow into communities rather than around them and this

has a multiplier effect, building both wealth and well-being (Sacks, 2005). Though current

drivers of social procurement can be identified, it is important to understand that it is not an

entirely new approach. Indeed in some countries the use of procurement to effect social

impact and promote equality has a history as long as that of the welfare state (McCrudden,

2004). The current interest in social procurement may actually reflect older and more

established linkages between charitable and market-based responses in order to generate and

promote social policy goals (reference).