Victoria’s Social Procurement Framework (SPF) – and accompanying suite of guidance materials – requires government buyers to consider opportunities to deliver social and sustainable outcomes in every individual procurement activity.
The framework establishes:
- the Victorian Government’s social and sustainable procurement objectives (and corresponding outcomes);
- requirements and expectations in relation to procurement planning and individual procurement activities; and
- measurement and reporting requirements.
For suppliers, whether they be major businesses or small to medium enterprises (SMEs), the framework advises how to incorporate social value when competing for government procurement opportunities.
Creating opportunities for people with disability is one of the seven social procurement objectives included in the SPF.
To advance this objective, the SPF recognises that employment opportunities for people with disability can be created:
- by purchasing goods and services from social benefit suppliers that employ people with disability (including Victorian social enterprises and Australian Disability Enterprises (ADEs)); or
- through mainstream businesses employing and training more people with disability (including those that are or wish to be suppliers to the Victorian Government).
In 2016-17, of the more than one million people with disability living in Victoria, only 4,166 Victorians with disability were registered with an ADE. In order to make a real difference to economic participation opportunities for people with disability, however, encouraging mainstream businesses to take a more inclusive approach to recruitment will be key to the SPF’s success in respect of creating opportunities for Victorians with disability through government procurement.
A range of tools and resources to support implementation of the SPF are available at Victoria’s Social Procurement Framework.