The STAR Joint Committee met to discuss performance, social value, collaboration, and budget updates. The committee approved the STAR Income Strategy 2025/28, the recruitment for the post of Director of STAR, and the new STAR Responsible Procurement Strategy 2025-28. Councillor Jilly Julian from Stockport Council was elected as the Chair and Councillor Jayne Lonergan from Knowsley Council was elected as the Vice Chair of the Joint Committee for the new municipal year 2025/26.

Responsible Procurement Strategy 2025-28

The committee agreed to adopt the new STAR Responsible Procurement Strategy 2025-28 and delegated final editing and formatting to the Assistant Director. The strategy sets out how STAR will use the collective spending power of its partners to uphold the highest ethical standards, minimise environmental impact, and maximise opportunities for local businesses and communities. The strategy is built around STAR's business plan and its six strategic objectives: Protect, Pioneer, Prosperity, Professional, Partnership, and People.

The strategy includes several key commitments:

• Driving Social Value: Embedding social value into all appropriate competition activity and tailoring outcomes to reflect the specific priorities of each partner or project.
• Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Procurement: Ensuring equal opportunity by applying equitable competition practices that improve access to opportunities by SMEs¹ and VCSEs².
• Championing Ethical Procurement Standards: Maintaining the highest standards of ethical procurement, underpinned by continued accreditation with the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS).
• Combating Modern Slavery: Strengthening the approach to tackling modern slavery by developing a Modern Slavery Toolkit to support due diligence and awareness within contracting activity.
• Environmental Responsibility: Developing an approach to enable carbon reporting mechanisms for suppliers to monitor and reduce the environmental impact of contract delivery and contribute to partners' net zero targets.

The strategy also sets out expectations for suppliers, including ethical business conduct, social value and local economic delivery, environmental responsibility, and inclusive and fair practices.

STAR Budget Position

The committee considered the STAR budget position at Quarter 1 of 2025/26. The report STAR Budget Position Q1 noted that the income target for 2025/26 was £450,000, with £252,000 secured at Q1, leaving £198,000 to be secured by Q4. The report also highlighted that all partners' management fees would be increased by 3.2%, backdated to 1 April 2025, to reflect wage inflation.

The expenditure forecast had increased slightly following the confirmation of Community Investment Fund (CIF) funding. There had also been a small movement of monies from staffing vacancy savings to fund job advertising costs. The report noted that the additional efficiency target to balance the budget was £148,600, which was being addressed through a combination of additional income, reducing running costs, vacancy management, and a consideration of STAR's establishment structure.

The committee also approved spending of £133,188 from STAR reserves in 2025/26 for the new Integrated Procurement System (Atamis).

Integrated Procurement System (IPS) Update

The committee received an update on the implementation of the Integrated Procurement System (IPS), delivered by Atamis. The IPS will replace existing solutions, including In-tend, and serve all six STAR partner councils. The system will support contract and supplier management, procurement pipeline planning, pre-procurement workflows, reporting, KPIs, and social value, and compliance with the Procurement Act 2023.

The report IPS Update noted that commercial negotiations and financial due diligence had been completed, securing £77,200 in savings over the potential four-year term compared to initial pricing submitted. Social value commitments had also been agreed, including volunteering and community initiatives.

The report also outlined the implementation approach and key phases, including system design and data migration, user engagement and training, and governance, risk, and compliance.

Collaboration First Update

The Head of Strategic Procurement provided the committee with an update on the Collaboration First project, which focuses on promoting and increasing collaborative procurement activity across the STAR partners. The report Collaboration First Update report noted that the total number of collaborations had increased to 192 since Q4 24/25, when 182 were reported collectively across GM/LCR.

The report also set out a five-year forecast of the percentage of live collaborative contracts each year, which indicated that achieving the 30% target would be very difficult but demonstrated an upward trajectory.

The report also provided an update on previously outlined Collaboration First actions, including communication with commissioners, a five-year pipeline plan review, and a collaboration plan.

Social Value Review Update

The Head of Strategic Procurement presented a Social Value update for the Committee, informing them of the pending strategic review the team is commencing soon.

Specifically, he reminded that the newly updated National Procurement Policy Statement focuses on value for money, economic growth, creating commercial ability, and the delivery of social value; and that for both the Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region areas, the focus is on the delivery of the Real Living Wage, the Good Employment Charters, tackling inequalities and Local Spend.

He explained that during June 2025, the review structure will be firmed up, and this will include assessing the approach to training and member engagement, the reporting of the delivery of Social Value and carbon reduction. Central to the success and

effectiveness of the review will be the incorporation of the new software ATAMIS which is expected will help to drive the strategic review.

The Head of Strategic Procurement reminded the Committee that STAR have a new business plan in place spanning the period 2025/28, which is driven by the 6 Ps (Protect, Pioneer, Prosperity, Professional, Partnership and People). The team will focus on the delivery of Social Value and increased Local Spend as well aa an improved collaboration with SME's.

STAR Joint Committee Engagement

The committee discussed options for improving the engagement and efficiency of the STAR Joint Committee. The report STAR Joint Committee Engagement noted that it can often be difficult to ensure full attendance for the meeting due to other diary commitments and the need to travel to locations across Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Regions.

Several options were proposed to ensure efficiency in operations and increase engagement with members:

• Remote Attendance: The committee noted that under current legislation, Joint Committee meetings must be held in person. However, the government has published a consultation on remote attendance and proxy voting at local authority meetings, and the committee agreed to consider this option further when guidance and legislation are issued.
• Business Plan Leads: It was proposed that each member take a lead for one of the objectives of the new STAR Business Plan (Protect, Prosperity, Pioneering, Professional, People, Partnership) and work with the STAR Leadership Team in providing input, engagement, and constructive challenge to these objectives.
• Ambassadors: It was suggested that members be ambassadors for STAR internally and externally, promoting the work that is done and flagging any potential procurement issues/opportunities.
• Annual Conference: The committee considered the opportunity to hold an annual conference for members, officers, and commissioners to promote the work of STAR, progress on key workstreams, challenges and risks, and priorities for the coming year.

Other Matters

The committee received a Q4 Performance Management 24/25 update, and a STAR Strategic Risk Register update for 2025/26. The committee also approved the STAR Income Strategy 2025/28 and the recruitment approval for the post of Director of STAR, following the retirement of the current Director, Lorraine Cox, who was thanked for her hard work over the last nine years establishing and progressing STAR.