Rosie Jolly is chief executive of the Liverpool-based Social Enterprise Network (SEN) and Liverpool City Council mayoral lead for social and community enterprise

Social value needs to be a compulsory part of public sector procurement, a leading light in the Merseyside social enterprise sector has said.

Rosie Jolly is chief executive of the Liverpool-based Social Enterprise Network (SEN) and Liverpool City Council mayoral lead for social and community enterprise.

This week SEN has organised the first Northern Enterprise 2016 Conference, Exhibition and Awards, being held in Manchester on Thursday.

The conference has been organised to discuss how social enterprise can help fuel the Northern Powerhouse.

Ahead of the event Ms Jolly has called on the Government to re-evaluate the Social Value Act 2012, to make the legislation a compulsory part of public sector procurement.

She said: “The Social Value Act 2012 needs teeth. Current legislation states public sector procurers need only ‘consider’ social value. This does not go far enough.

“Lord Young’s 2015 report highlights this as only 21% had taken social value and embedded it into practice.

“My work with Liverpool City Council has been instrumental in transforming the procurement process.

“The council has developed a social value KPI portal to tackle the issue of measurement and has found that it spends £449m across its supply chain, with analysis revealing that £228m (51%) is spent directly in the Liverpool city region since adopting the social value model, directly supporting the city’s priorities.

“Three years ago the supply chain was extremely fragmented, now Liverpool can track where it is spending money.

“This is a model we want to see replicated across the country. Northern Enterprise 2016 will set out the parameters and show good practice.

“This is the point where we need Government to step up and make the Social Value Act 2012 compulsory, not a consideration.”