As part of the Beacon Peer Support Programme, Wakefield Council coordinated a series of Learning Networks in 2007 / 2008 to help develop and promote sustainable procurement across local government and the public sector.   

The Learning networks consisted of between 12 and 15 participants from different organisations and met four times over a period of eight months to explore common issues. The emphasis of this series of Learning Networks was to discuss issues relating to Sustainable Procurement and share knowledge and experience.

One output from the Learning Network is a risk based approach to identifying and capturing the whole life costs (WLC) of a desired contract output. Slides from the WLC workshop delivered by Wakefield in July 2008, together with a copy of the risk log, and a WLC guide for schools and low value procurements is available under 'Downloads'. There is also a Whole Life Cost model which is a useful resource when trying to explain the principle to others.

If you are interested in participating in any future events or any future networks please contact Rob Allan at rallan@wakefield.gov.uk