SocialPro believes the best way to support social procurement is to contribute to it directly. That commitment is clearest in the work of our Director of Growth and Strategy, Rebecca Lee, who has spent the past year advancing the sector's advocacy, its engagement with government, and the organisation of Social Procurement Week.
For SocialPro, industry leadership is not a claim to make. It is something you demonstrate by showing up for the sector. Recently, our Director of Growth and Strategy Rebecca Lee, has committed significant time voluntarily to strengthen social procurement policy advocacy and advancement.
In 2022, Rebecca co-founded the Social Procurement Network, a volunteer community that connects practitioners across the industry so they can learn from one another. This year she has taken that further, working with Social Procurement Australasia to advance social procurement policy and its engagement with government.
Rebecca has been part of a coordinated sector effort to keep social procurement firmly on the agenda in Victoria. Working with Social Procurement Australasia, she has helped bring practitioners together to distil years of discussion into a clear set of proposals for government.
"Social procurement in Victoria has been pioneering, and in its ninth year it has matured steadily. Now is the time to show government the real value our industry brings, and to keep refining our approach so that social procurement becomes business as usual."
— Rebecca Lee, Director of Growth and Strategy, SocialPro
That work fed into Social Procurement Australasia's 2026 ministerial brief, presented at the Deakin University Social Procurement Maturity Forum in July 2026. The brief celebrates a framework that is working, and sets out what government can do to sustain it.
The case is strong. Victoria's Social Procurement Framework uses the government's $39 billion in annual purchasing power to create jobs and training for Victorians who face the highest barriers to work. Since 2018 it has directed more than $305 million to certified social benefit suppliers, and 2023-24 was its strongest year on record. In an April 2026 survey, 75 per cent of practitioners rated it as effective. Advocacy of the kind Rebecca contributes to is about protecting and extending that impact.
The ministerial brief sets out five practical actions for government, which SocialPro supports:
These reflect what practitioners see on the ground, turned into tangible steps government can take.
SocialPro's own work supports the third recommendation directly. As an Australian-owned social enterprise that helps government suppliers capture their outcomes, SocialPro has recorded 50+ government projects onboarded, 5.4 million workforce hours across priority jobseeker cohorts, and more than $132 million in social benefit supplier spend across FY2025 to FY2026. That data shows the reporting gap the sector wants to close is one that can be closed.
Rebecca's contribution continues through Social Procurement Week, which she has helped organise. SocialPro is sponsoring the Social Procurement Network event, supporting the community she helped build.
She is also leading a SocialPro webinar on the opportunities for social procurement in renewable energy, which speaks directly to the sector's call to extend the Framework beyond construction.
SocialPro sees its role as a contributor to social procurement, not only a supplier to it. Rebecca Lee's advocacy, her work on ministerial engagement, and her part in Social Procurement Week reflect that. The sector grows fastest when the people in it give back, and that is the kind of leadership we want to be known for.
To join us at Social Procurement Week, or to register for the renewable energy webinar, visit socialpro.com.au.
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