The Foundational Economy

The Foundational Economy Challenge Fund is a Welsh Government initiative with its key aim to re-focus policy on the infrastructure supporting everyday business and life.

The business generated by the Foundational Economy is not a small part of the Welsh economy, with estimates suggesting it is four in ten jobs and £1 in every three that we spend.

Our Vision

We aspire to work collaboratively with The Foundational Economy within the Vale of Glamorgan promoting inclusive economic growth in our region.

Mission Statement 

To challenge, innovate and be a progressive change agent providing a high standard of professional expertise maximising the opportunity for a sustainable local procurement model.

The project will fall into six phases across 2020 – 2021:

• We propose to establish a Foundational Economy steering group within the Vale of Glamorgan Council to monitor and evaluate the existing and future procurement process at a local level.
• We will conduct market analysis to engage and establish an up-to-date picture of the local Business Forums & SMEs attitude towards interpreting the Vale of Glamorgan Council procurement process so we can make better informed decisions about what is needed / desired. We aim to work collaboratively with all SMEs within two specific areas identified in the Foundational Economy, Health and Social Care and Construction.  
• We will convene a series of workshops and podcasts over a period of three months to ready and prepare our identified SME’s to not only register their business on ‘Sell to Wales’ but to convert these businesses into submitting assured tender responses.
• We propose to work actively on a 1-2-1 basis with SMEs in the region over a period of six months of this nine-month project offering our expertise and guidance on tendering on ‘Sell to Wales’.
• We will assess the impact of the above activities and produce a series of detailed case study’s and evaluation to ascertain and quantify what difference has been made to the Foundational Economy across the duration of the project, framing both SME and the Vale of Glamorgan Councils positions and responses.
• We will produce a local purchasing policy, guidelines and dedicated web page to continue and scale up our work, building further relationships within the defined business areas of the Foundational Economy in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Finally, we propose to host an evaluation with representatives across the Vale of Glamorgan Council our SME’s involved in the project and our partners across the Foundational Economy to share best practice and consider the wider implications of our results.

How to do business with the Vale of Glamorgan Council?

Are you interested in doing business with us? We want to know about you! To make sure we can get in touch with you, email msims@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk whom will be managing 1-2-1 support from the 04 September 2020 up until March 2021.

You can view opportunities for both Vale of Glamorgan Council and Public Sector organisations across Wales on Sell2Wales to better understand what we are currently looking to procure.

What are we buying? 

We buy different types of works, good and services, varying in type and cost.

If you are interested in doing business with us, the list below highlights some of the main sectors we are currently buying from: Works and Construction, Design, Marketing, Advocacy, Training, Catering, Food Chain, Health & Social Care

You can check all our current contract opportunities through Sell2Wales.

Got a question? 

If you require help please contact us by emailing msims@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk 

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