Celebrating the best in public procurement from across the UK, this year’s National GO Awards took place on 30th April at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Birmingham. The event brought together winners from the GO Awards Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over the last 12 months with new entrants for a night of festivities and sharing of best practice, leadership and innovation.
The glittering black-tie event was hosted by TV presenter Sarah Heaney, and gave finalists to share their success stories and have their achievements recognised.
The event also saw an official opening address from Simon Tse, the Chief Executive of the Crown Commercial Service, who stressed the need to celebrate the sometimes under-appreciated wider importance of procurement in the UK.
This year there were 16 categories, plus the GO Excellence Award, with many categories from previous years split to recognise different types of organisation. This testifies to both the quantity and quality of entries. The judging panel, made up of experts in the field of procurement, stressed that this year’s batch of entries was among the strongest ever, with chair of the judging panel David Smith commenting that:
I believe the standard of the awards has improved greatly over the years. The winners in the categories this year are as good if not better than any other year.
See some of the highlights of the evening here:
GO Awards presentation
Although many of the evening’s winners and highly commended entrants represented previously recognised entries from the GO Awards Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, there were also many winners from among the new entrants. A full list of winners and highly commended entrants is below – congratulations to them all!
GO Social and Community Benefit in Procurement Award – Local Authority, Consortia and Housing
Winner: Liverpool City Council
Highly Commended: Tai Tarian
GO Social and Community Benefit in Procurement Award – Other Organisations
Winner: Department for Infrastructure, Graham Farrans Joint Venture & AECOM
Highly Commended: Scottish Government – SG Procurement, Contract Management and Capability Team
GO Best Service Award – Micro and Small Businesses and Third Sector Organisations
Winner: Ingenica Solutions & Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
Highly Commended: AdviseInc Ltd.
GO Best Service Award – Medium & Large Organisations
Winner: Warmworks Scotland
Highly Commended: Hays & Birmingham City Council
GO Procurement Innovation of the Year Award – Taking the procurement function forward – Health and Social Care
Winner: Scan4Safety & the Department of Health and Social Care
Highly Commended: Angus Council / Angus Health and Social Care Partnership
Highly Commended: Leicestershire County Council
GO Procurement Innovation of the Year Award – Taking the procurement function forward – Health and Social Care (NHS Organisations)
Winner: University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust & Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
Highly Commended: NHS Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit & NHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group
Highly Commended: NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support & NHS England
GO Procurement Innovation of the Year Award – Taking the procurement function forward – Local Government, Central Government and Other Organisations
Winner: Kent Police & Essex Police
Highly Commended: Kirklees Council
GO Infrastructure Project of the Year
Winner: Transport Scotland – Forth Replacement Crossing
GO Procurement Leadership of the Year Award – Local Government & Other Organisations
Winner: North Yorkshire County Council
Highly Commended: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
GO Procurement Leadership of the Year Award – Central Government & Healthcare Organisations
Winner: Bank of England
Highly Commended: Office of National Statistics
GO Procurement Project of the Year Award (sub-£20m value)
Winner: Renfrewshire Council
Highly Commended: Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, North West Shared Infrastructure Service and others
GO Procurement Project of the year award (above £20m value) – Local Government and Consortia
Winner: North Lincolnshire Council
Highly Commended: NEPO
GO Procurement Project of the year award (above £20m value) – Other Organisations
Winner: Translink
Highly Commended: Department for International Development
Highly Commended: North of England Commissioning Support Unit & NHS England (Specialised Commissioning, North Region)
GO Emerging Procurement Talent Award
Joint Winner: Leidos Supply Limited
Joint Winner: Cardiff Council
GO Procurement Team of the Year Award – Health and Social Care Organisations
Winner: NHS Scotland National Procurement Equipping Sourcing Team, working with NSS Health Facilities Scotland Equipping Team
Highly Commended: Procurement and Logistics Service (a subsidiary of the Business Services Organisation) partnering with all Health and Social Care Trusts & the Department of Health
GO Procurement Team of the Year Award – Local Government, Central Government and Other Organisations
Winner: Kirklees Council
Highly Commended: Network Homes
Highly Commended: North Yorkshire County Council
GO Excellence Award
Unlike other awards, the GO Excellence award cannot be entered. Instead, the nominations for this award were revealed on the evening of the ceremony, comprising a list of five of the overall strongest entries from across this year’s winning entrants, as decided by the expert judging panel.
The GO Excellence Award this year went to the team from Scan4Safety & the Department for Health and Social Care. The judging panel described this entry as
a major league project for a major league organisation – delivering significant benefits in a host of areas: efficiency, safety and cost management to name just three. A project that has required huge effort to coordinate, with an impressive list of benefits achieved and evidence of sharing of best practice.
The GO Awards – next steps
While this year’s National GO Awards presentation may be over, check the GO Awards website over the coming weeks to learn more about the fascinating and inspiring stories behind some of the winning and highly commended entries.
In addition, the GO Awards Scotland 2019/20 will take place on 29th October with the GO Awards Wales following on 7th November. The entry process will begin soon – so why not share your procurement success story?
