Case Study for PPN 01/21 - Social Value within Procurement - Provision of a Library Management System

The Education Authority (EA) Commercial Procurement Service (CPS) issued a call for tender in December 2024 to provide a Library Management System for EAs Education Library Service Team and Nursery, Primary, Post Primary, Special and EOTAS schools. This was undertaken on behalf of the Education Directorate (EdIS Programme Workstream 4) to ensure continuity of the library management solution after the current contract expiry on 31 March 2026.
The contract was awarded on 25th July 2025 to Softlink (Europe) Ltd.

The objective of the procurement was to evolve the current corporate and school-facing library management systems to take advantage of more streamlined approaches to the circulation of library items, improved stock taking facilities, and innovations to encourage literacy skills and a love of reading in schools and other educational settings within the EdIS scope.

In line with Northern Ireland Public Procurement Note PPN 01/21 Social Value in Procurement, delivery of social value initiatives formed part of the assessment criteria with a weighted score of 10%.

Following engagement and consultation with the market and key stakeholders, bidders were required to consider the following initiatives within their social value delivery plan:

• Paid employment for people from the EA’s priority groups (young people from EOTAS and Youth Centres in economically deprived areas, children and young people from Special Education Needs settings and children and young people with asylum/refugee status).
• Opportunities for entrepreneurship and help new, small organisations to grow, supporting economic growth and business creation.
• Promote inclusion of Social and Micro Enterprises in the contract’s supply chain.
• Knowledge and skills sharing with educational establishments, including delivery of skilled advice in an area related to the contract.
• Donation of supplies or tools to educational establishments or organisations working with young people.

The successful contractor is required to provide social value to a minimum level of 100 social value points for every £1 million (and pro-rata) of invoiced value, capped at an averaged invoiced value of £3 million per annum. Suppliers as part of the tender submission submitted a Social Value Plan detailing the initiatives that they would deliver on based on the indicative initial contract period value. The evaluation panel assessed submissions based on the proposed initiatives, resources to support delivery, timescales and monitoring arrangements.

Softlink (Europe) Ltd. the successful contractors Social Value Delivery plan included the following:

• To improve literacy, foster a love of reading for pleasure, and address educational inequality by donating £10,000 funding for books and literacy resources to schools in Northern Ireland. To date books with a total stock value of £16,667.01 have been procured and donated to school libraries. The first year’s collection is the ‘Haven’ collection – specifically targeted at pupils with diverse reading challenges across all schools across the country. Haven is based on the concept of a ‘safe secure’ haven where pupils can find comfort support and wellbeing in a book. The books were selected to include those which are specifically beneficial to challenged individuals and books to encourage a positive reading experience irrespective of age, background and ability. The collection also includes interactive books to engage the disengaged reader.
• Hiring a new employee from the EA’s priority groups to run and promote the initiative, ensuring representation and a deeper understanding of the community’s needs and partner with local booksellers in Northern Ireland through bookshop.org. supporting small businesses throughout the project. This role has been appointed to a local employee from EA’s Priority group.
• Engaging with local literacy advocacy groups to support the initiative and ensure sustainable benefits.
• Foster ongoing partnerships with library resource providers to maintain book supplies.
• Supporting schools in creating book clubs and reading initiatives to build a culture of reading.
  The following video highlights the impact the award of this contract on delivering to children and young people: Education Library Management System.