Councillor Smith proposed her submitted motion, seconded by Councillor Hayes.  

Councillor Gant proposed his submitted amendment, seconded by Councillor Wade.

After debate and on being put to the vote, the amendment was declared lost.

After debate and on being put to the vote, the motion as originally proposed was declared carried.

Council resolved to agree the following motion:

Social enterprise is a business that trades for a social and/or environmental purpose. It will have a clear sense of its ‘social mission’: which means it will know what difference it is trying to make, who it aims to help, and how it plans to do it. It will bring in most or all of its income through selling goods or services. And it will also have clear rules about what it does with its profits, reinvesting these to further the ‘social mission’.

Since 2014 Oxfordshire has been designated a ‘social enterprise place’ by Social Enterprise UK: this designation recognises the variety of local social enterprises on our doorstep and makes it easier to stay informed about what local social enterprises have to offer.

As a council we already recognise that our procurement power is a mechanism for delivering and realising tangible benefits for local communities.  Over 50% of the Council’s spend is local to Oxfordshire with approximately 27% of this being paid to Small and Medium Enterprises.  Social Value is also a key consideration when high value contracts are let.

This Council asks the City Executive Board:

to establish an officer group to identify any further actions to embed the Social Value Act and its principles across the council and encourage the use of local social enterprise suppliers; and to recommend to the Board Member any changes to the Procurement Strategy or rules to achieve this.