Community Wealth & Economic Growth
Every pound the Welsh public sector spends is a chance to strengthen a local business, create an apprenticeship, or keep money circulating closer to home. This theme is about the practical mechanics of that ambition — routes to market for Welsh suppliers, joint bidding for smaller businesses, and the community wealth building agenda now taking shape across Welsh public procurement.
Where to Go on the Day
SME Engagement Village
Entry-level stands for smaller and first-time exhibitors — your first step into the Welsh public sector marketplace.
SME Engagement Village · FloorOpportunity Wales Hub
A dedicated pavilion for organisations shaping Wales' procurement landscape — including Constructing Excellence, with more partners confirming soon.
Opportunity Wales Hub · FloorOn the Agenda
Keeping the Public Pound in Wales
Opportunities for Welsh suppliers within Welsh public supply chains — practical routes to market, not theory.
Joint Bidding in Wales
Forming consortia, sharing risk, and winning together — how smaller suppliers can compete for contracts otherwise out of reach.
Also on the draft agenda
Titles and times only — speakers still being confirmed£11.4bn+ moves through Welsh public procurement every year.
Where that spend lands — which businesses, which communities, which supply chains — is increasingly a deliberate policy choice, not an accident of who happened to bid. This theme is where that choice gets made practical.
Proven in Practice — GO Awards Wales 2025/26
The GO Awards Wales celebrate the best of Welsh public procurement each year. These winners and highly commended entries show this theme in action — real projects, real results, not abstract theory.
Led by Caerphilly CBC on behalf of 19 public bodies (now grown to 21), the framework reached £47m in spend in 2024/25 alone. Of 26 suppliers who bid, 22 were awarded a place — 19 of them Welsh.
Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Torfaen and Monmouthshire now share one procurement service overseeing £1.3bn of combined annual spend, run by a 40-strong team managing 350+ procurement exercises a year.
Reversed the usual 70/30 cost-quality split to 60% quality / 40% cost to prioritise community benefit over lowest price. The build has delivered 76 entrant jobs, 71 apprenticeships and over £35m of social value so far, on a project expected to boost the local economy by £467m over 15 years.
Social Value & Responsible Procurement
The Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act means fair work and wellbeing now sit alongside cost and quality in how Welsh public bodies buy — not as an add-on, but as a duty. This theme is where that duty gets translated into practice: what buyers need to ask for, and what suppliers need to be ready to prove.
Where to Go on the Day
Social Value Clinic
Expert advice on embedding and evidencing social value in your bids. Find it on the exhibition floor.
Social Value Clinic · FloorFuture Generations Hub
USW and Cardiff University bring the next generation of procurement professionals to the floor — a look at where the profession is heading.
Future Generations Hub · FloorOn the Agenda
Responsible Procurement
How one of Wales' largest collaborative procurement services builds social value into everyday buying decisions.
Bringing the Social Partnership & Public Procurement Act to Life
Embedding compliance with the new Act as business as usual — not a bolt-on exercise.
Also on the draft agenda
Titles and times only — speakers still being confirmedSocial value is now a statutory duty, not a nice-to-have.
The Social Partnership and Public Procurement Act puts fair work and wellbeing on the same footing as cost and quality. Buyers who can't evidence it are exposed; suppliers who can are winning more work.
Proven in Practice — GO Awards Wales 2025/26
The GO Awards Wales celebrate the best of Welsh public procurement each year. These winners and highly commended entries show this theme in action — real projects, real results, not abstract theory.
Flipped the usual evaluation weighting to 60% quality / 40% cost, selecting a contractor on proven community benefit rather than lowest bid. Delivered 76 entrant jobs, 71 apprenticeships and 32 traineeships to date.
An asset-based, community-first model that channels roughly 0.5% of contract value into local causes — from a new accessible entrance at KB Boxing to relocating Men's Shed to a bigger venue now serving 50+ members.
Introduced monthly advance payments to providers based on historic care hours and a real living wage requirement for all contracted staff — cutting average waiting lists to single figures and easing hospital discharge pressure.
Supply Chain & Stakeholder Engagement
Wales' public supply chains run through hundreds of buying organisations and thousands of suppliers — increasingly connected by shared frameworks, consortia and platforms. This theme covers how that network actually works in practice: who's buying, how smaller suppliers get in, and how relationships across the chain are built and sustained.
Where to Go on the Day
Opportunity Wales Hub
A dedicated pavilion for organisations shaping Wales' procurement landscape — including Constructing Excellence, with more partners confirming soon.
Opportunity Wales Hub · FloorOn the Agenda
Keeping the Public Pound in Wales
Opportunities for Welsh suppliers within Welsh public supply chains.
Responsible Procurement
Building social value into everyday buying decisions across a large collaborative service.
Joint Bidding in Wales
Forming consortia, sharing risk, and winning together.
Also on the draft agenda
Titles and times only — speakers still being confirmedEvery contract runs through a supply chain, not just a supplier.
Wales' public sector works with thousands of businesses directly and indirectly. Understanding how frameworks, consortia and shared platforms connect them is increasingly core to how buyers de-risk delivery.
Proven in Practice — GO Awards Wales 2025/26
The GO Awards Wales celebrate the best of Welsh public procurement each year. These winners and highly commended entries show this theme in action — real projects, real results, not abstract theory.
Built an in-house refurbishment facility in Merthyr Tydfil under a "new furniture as a last resort" model. For Welsh Government alone since 2024: 228 pieces reupholstered, 1,246 relocated for reuse or donation, and 495 recycled.
After a critical incident closed 8 surgical theatres and the ICU, mobile theatre and endoscopy units were sourced and commissioned within three months — delivering around 1,200 surgical procedures in roughly four months.
Procurement Futures
The Procurement Act 2023 changed the mechanics of how Wales buys — new procedures, new notices, new routes to market. This theme is where buyers and suppliers get practical about what's actually changed, what shared services and commercial reform look like on the ground, and where the next generation of procurement leadership is coming from.
Where to Go on the Day
Procurement Clinic
One-to-one expert advice from Delta on navigating the Procurement Act 2023 in practice.
Procurement Clinic · FloorGO Excellence Lounge & Case Studies
Award-winning procurement projects, told first-hand — a working session on what excellence actually looks like.
GO Excellence Lounge · FloorOn the Agenda
An Overview of the TOM System in Wales
How the Target Operating Model is reshaping procurement delivery across Wales.
Transforming Higher Education Through Shared Services
Strategy, structure and innovation in shared services reform.
Bringing the Social Partnership & Public Procurement Act to Life
Embedding compliance with the new Act as business as usual.
Also on the draft agenda
Titles and times only — speakers still being confirmedThe Procurement Act 2023 is in force. The question is what changes on the ground.
New procedures, new notices, new expectations of transparency. This is where buyers and suppliers get specific about what's actually different — not just what's legally required.
Proven in Practice — GO Awards Wales 2025/26
The GO Awards Wales celebrate the best of Welsh public procurement each year. These winners and highly commended entries show this theme in action — real projects, real results, not abstract theory.
One of the first government bodies to exit a 20-year, £500m PFI contract, decoupling soft services 18 months early to test the new delivery model before full expiry — realising £36m in savings and opening the door to local SME contracts.
Delivered the Procurement Act 2023 into force across two legislative systems simultaneously, briefing over 1,000 stakeholders across 65 sessions — with over 90% satisfaction and 97% reporting improved understanding of the reforms.
Led USW's largest-ever procurement — a circa £40m building delivered via two-stage design and build — securing £21m of social value commitments, including £12m subcontracted to local SMEs and 50+ local jobs and apprenticeships.
Also highly commended in this theme: University of South Wales (Calon), NWSSP HEIW Frontline Procurement, and Rhondda Cynon Taf CBC's procurement team.
Digital Innovation in Procurement
From AI-powered supplier discovery to cyber resilience across the supply chain, technology is changing what buyers expect and what suppliers need to prove. This theme looks at the practical edge of that shift — real tools, real safeguards, and the Welsh position on where automation and data fit into public buying.
Where to Go on the Day
Future Generations Hub
USW and Cardiff University showcase how tomorrow's procurement professionals are being trained for a more digital, data-driven profession.
Future Generations Hub · FloorOn the Agenda
Cyber Essentials and Supply Chain Security
What buyers require, how suppliers comply — practical cyber resilience for public sector supply chains.
Also on the draft agenda
Titles and times only — speakers still being confirmedTechnology is changing what "capable supplier" means.
From AI-assisted supplier discovery to cyber resilience requirements written into contracts, digital maturity is becoming a genuine screening criterion — not a bonus point.
Proven in Practice — GO Awards Wales 2025/26
The GO Awards Wales celebrate the best of Welsh public procurement each year. These winners and highly commended entries show this theme in action — real projects, real results, not abstract theory.
Uses natural language processing to surface sole traders and micro-businesses invisible to traditional supplier databases, complete with automated due diligence checks. Engaged 650+ previously unknown suppliers in its first year, several of whom went on to win contracts or join frameworks — also this year's overall GO Excellence Award winner.