Development of the Firesouls platform - an online, closed bid Social Value auction

Firesouls aims to provide all UK government organisations with a software-as-a-service
(SaaS) auction platform that generates new resources for local communities.
It does this by applying the Social Value Act to government procurement. Under law,
government suppliers can be obliged to create extra community benefits as part of the
procurement process. The Firesouls platform provides a means of both maximising the
benefits for communities while at the same time keeping the supplier contract viable.
Currently, take up and application of the Social Value Act has been low. For example, only
15% of local councils have developed an approach. Those that have tend to evaluate on a
contract by contract basis to generate community benefits This is labour intensive, costly and
inefficient. The Firesouls platform offers an online, automated auction platform that both
takes the pain away from government procurement teams, and allows market forces - through
matching 'Social Value buyers and sellers' - to determine the proper amount of community
benefit to be drawn from government contracts.
At a time of severe public spending cuts and growing demand for local public services,
Firesouls offers a way to generate new resources for local communities, year on year. We also
allow suppliers to focus on delivering the contract - we ask suppliers to give the resources to
local communities to create Social Value, rather than the suppliers doing it themselves. Our
argument is that suppliers should supply government services, local community organisations
should deliver Social Value - they just need the resources to do it.