Pandemic response wins procurement team national award

The Salvation Army’s procurement department has been named ‘Team of the Year (Small Organisation – Annual Turnover under £500M per annum)’ at the recent ‘Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Excellence in Procurement Awards 2020’.

The department, which buys a wide range of goods and services for The Salvation Army, and ensures good quality and value, was recognised for its efforts in building a procurement function from scratch. 

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, it has played an instrumental part in helping to create a network of 22 food hubs, which helped provide stock for corps to deliver essential food parcels to more than 25,000 struggling families, people who are self-isolating and other people in need. 

The procurement department also organised the distribution of 700,000 items of PPE donated by Mail Force, a charity set up by the Daily Mail. As well as planning the bulk delivery of PPE to Salvation Army care homes, Lifehouses and modern slavery safehouses, it also coordinated the onward distribution of items to other charities. The equivalent stock of PPE - made up of masks and aprons would have cost The Salvation Army £230,000.

Steve Apted, Head of Procurement, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won this award and be recognised in this way. Covid-19 has presented us with a huge challenge, but I’m so pleased how the team has worked together to deliver help and support to those people who need it most.

“The role of the Procurement team is to support The Salvation Army’s mission. We have participated in the coordination and delivery of 70,000 books and toys to families, raised awareness of modern slavery through participating in the #WeAreNotForSale campaign and helped a former homeless person to learn skills to find a job through Aramark, one of our major suppliers. The team are all thrilled to be helping The Salvation Army make a difference to the lives of people in need.”

The team beat nominations from seven other companies and was also shortlisted for the ‘Best Procurement Transformation’ award after overhauling its purchasing approach and saving millions of pounds which can instead be used to help people in need. 

Judges for the CIPS Awards said: “A very clear stakeholder-led approach with a flexible model to balance commercial and social outcomes. The challenges were significant but were overcome through common sense solutions at very low cost.

“I’m really pleased to see that the team is sharing their approach with other organisations in the sector as this could be a game changer.”

Learn more about why the team won.