West Dunbartonshire Council is committed to working with our local community and businesses to maximise local social value from our procurement activity. This will be achieved through the inclusion of specific clauses within procurement contracts known as Social Benefit clauses.
Social Benefit clauses are requirements which deliver wider benefits to our local community in addition to the core purpose of a contract. These clauses can be used to build a range of economic, social or environmental benefits into the delivery of Council contracts through a range of options which may include, but are not limited to:
The Council issues a Social Benefits questionnaire with every tender it publishes and specifies the minimum number of Social Benefit points that the successful tenderer must deliver as part of the contract. The questionnaire contains a range of different Social Benefit options that the tenderers can select to achieve the required number of points. If, as part of this process, the successful tenderer has selected options to provide support to local businesses, third sector, voluntary sector, community organisations or charities, the wish list will be shared with them at the contract implementation stage and appropriate requests will be considered and selected to be delivered. View the current Social Benefits Wishlist.
Local businesses, the third sector, the voluntary sector, community groups or charitable organisations can submit a request for specific help via our Local Social Benefits Wish List form and provide details of any requirements and timescales. This can include requests for training, sponsorship, donations of material or labour, work experience or any community related help. Please note that there are no guarantees that requests will be fulfilled.
You may have up to 3 active wishes on the Wish List at any one time. Additional requests cannot be added until one of your existing wishes has been completed.
If you need assistance completing the form, you can request support by email the team at social.benefits@west-dunbarton.gov.uk and a member of the team will get back to you.
We aim to review all new requests within 3 weeks of submission - you should hear back from us within this timeframe to confirm what happens next with your requests. If approved, they will be uploaded to the website for review by West Dunbartonshire Council suppliers/service providers and the general public.
There are NO guarantees around how long it might take for your wish to be selected, and we unfortunately can't promise that your request will be fulfilled. However, we will do all we can to signpost suppliers/service providers who work with the Council to the requests on the wishlist.
Please ensure any request made are reasonable and able to be delivered by the suppliers/service providers within the scope of their contractual obligations. We would also like to highlight that any requests made are reviewed on a case-by-case basis with the total number of overall previously granted wishes for that one organisation being taken into consideration. This ensure that all local Community Groups in need are receiving equal levels of support.
To ensure the list remains accurate, wishes that have not been selected after one year will be removed from the list. Where your wish contains a deadline date, contact will be made directly to determine if this wish is still required. Where the wish is no longer required, this will be removed. You may then submit a new wish if you choose or make updates to your existing wishes.
All vacancies offered through Local Social Benefits within contracts will be managed by our Working4U team, if you would like to find out about opportunities available please contact us on social.benefits@west-dunbarton.gov.uk.
You can see examples of what our local communities in West Dunbartonshire have already benefited from through our Local Social Benefits Good News Stories page.
The delivery of Local Social Benefits will be managed at regular contract monitoring meetings between suppliers and the Council’s contract owner.
The Council also hold regular Local Social Benefit steering group meetings.
If you have any further enquiries relating to Local Social Benefits then please email social.benefits@west-dunbarton.gov.uk.