Melissa Bell

Melissa is, after 15+ years of career at YPO,  developing their sustainable procurement practices to help our procurement teams embed sustainable and social value outcomes into their tenders. She is also going to be working with suppliers to develop and deliver positive social impacts in the community.

Part of her role is also working with customers to understand what their priorities are in relation to social value and what they would like to see reflected in their solutions.

YPO was established over four decades ago by local government authorities to help combine their procurement demands and achieve efficiency savings. They are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities.

Every year, they budget to make a small surplus which is used to develop the business. Everything else is passed back to the public sector customers and member authorities for reinvestment in their services, which means the profits they make are returned to their public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes.

Their range includes around 30,000 products and 100 frameworks.