Over the last few days I have been one of a team of judges evaluating the entries for the Government Opportunities (GO) National Public Procurement Awards 2013/14. We have seen some fantastic examples of progressive procurement that has enabled local authorities, government departments, NHS trusts and others to secure better outcomes for communities and individual citizens, wider social outcomes and better value for money.
Procurement has to be able to demonstrate its contribution to the wider strategic goals of the organisation; it can no longer simply be about buying goods and services. Thankfully this is the case in many, but not all, public agencies.
Some of the submissions to the GO Awards included examples of public procurement delivering outputs and outcomes including:
- supplier apprenticeship programmes
- the living wage throughout the supply chain
- good employment terms and conditions across the supply chain, including international suppliers
- environmental and sustainability goals
- and much more
Imaginative procurement is able – even within legal constraints – to support local employment and local suppliers. There were some very good examples of procurement processes including engaged supplier relationships to encourage and facilitate SMEs and the local voluntary and community sector to successfully bid for contracts. There were also examples of public procurement partnering with the business and voluntary sectors.
Among the entries were some examples of public procurement being used to drive and support cross-sector collaboration to maximise value and outcomes. There were also examples of collaborative procurement between agencies and some shared procurement arrangements between agencies. Collaboration and partnership of this kind will play an increasing role in the delivery of public services and procurement has a major role to play in making this possible.
Procurement is one means of implementing strategic commissioning decisions but there has to be greater partnership between commissioners and procurers across the public sector. These are complementary approaches.
The service user, communities, staff and other stakeholders should be involved in every aspect of procurement. There were some fine examples of this in practice in the awards submissions. I was particularly impressed by those procurement teams that had supported, trained and where necessary engaged advocates to support users, including people with learning disabilities and tenants, to be able to play a full role in the process – not being shut out by technical preciousness. There has to be much more of this kind of approach. Personalisation and direct payments could fundamentally reshape swathes of the public procurement landscape. Progressive procurement managers and teams are already developing roles that support and facilitate but do not undermine the very concept of empowered users with choice.
Of course procurement teams across the public sector have themselves to be smart in the way that they work. They have to – as many already have – embrace technology; support new systems that are robust but affordable; team, partner or merge with others inside and beyond their own organisation; adopt frameworks (but hopefully in ways that do not deter or prevent new entrants and smaller suppliers/partners); and much more.
The profession has to be ready and willing to be much more involved with colleagues across their organisations and in with suppliers and potential suppliers. Dialogue and listening are essential.
The profession has to demonstrate what it would expect from those with whom it contracts. It can no longer be focused on compliance at the expense of outcomes.
The public sector’s spend across the business, social and voluntary sectors is large and should always be aligned with the wider agenda. This should be even more the case in a period of austerity, though there are signs that there will be pressures to use it simply to drive down price and costs. While value for money is essential and low cost is desirable as long as the right quality and wider social goals are being achieved, ‘bargain basement shopping’ is best avoided.
The National GO Awards offer a great opportunity to showcase some of the best practice across the UK public sector. It is important that this good practice is shared and promulgated. It is also important that the profession looks at best practice in other sectors and other countries – and, of course, that these other sectors and international partners look at the best UK public sector practice.
I only wish that I could believe that the examples that we have been judging this week were representative of all public procurement in this country. Sadly we know that they are not. There are too many teams and individuals stuck in the past. There has to be change and improvement, which may require some investment, but above all it will require professional leadership and behavioural change. This has to be the ‘we can do’ profession – or what does it have to offer to the public sector and the public?
Reading some of the entries to the National GO Awards 2013/14 could be a good starting point.