Local Commissioning and Procurement News

Survey on DWP Work Programme and voluntary sector involvement

Inclusion and the Third Sector European Network (TSEN) are conducting a survey to find out the extent to which the local voluntary sector in England has been included in Department of Work and Pension’s (DWP) Work Programme bids.

The government has signalled strongly to prime providers that it expects them to involve the voluntary sector in delivering the Work Programme, especially at a local and community level. The survey’s results will illustrate whether this expectation has been met.

NAVCA suggests that support and development organisations encourage local providers who have engaged or attempted to engage with the Work Programme to complete the survey. It is open until 25 March.

Results of the survey will be released at the TSEN Annual Conference on 30 March 2011 entitled Europe and the Work Programme. The conference will “provide the platform for potential civil society sub-contractors to discuss with Primes the barriers which small civil society organisations face to involvement with Framework Providers”.

Alternatively the results will be available on the TSEN and CESI websites following the conference.

Meanwhile the bidding process continues for the prime contractors who were successful in being listed on the framework agreement, with the government aiming to have the programme in place by summer 2011.

Read previous NAVCA news items on the Work Programme.

Transparency, and other moves to open up government procurement

Including what it means for the voluntary and community sector The government has announced a number of measures to “make doing business with government more transparent, and more welcoming to smaller companies, charities and social enterprises” and to meet the government aspiration for SME’s to deliver 25% of government contracts.

This new briefing includes the latest developments.

Transparency, and other moves to open up government procurement (pdf, 77 KB).

Response to 'Modernising Commissioning' green paper

In December the Cabinet Office published a green paper which set out its plans for modernising commissioning. The Government commitment is to ‘support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and enable these groups to have a much greater involvement in the running of public services.’

The paper covers a very wide range of issues related to commissioning. They include:

• expanding the use of payments by results
• giving public sector workers in central government rights to form mutuals to take over the running of services
• extending the Merlin standard across central government
• maximising social, environmental and economic value in commissioning.

The paper also includes issues which are within the Localism Bill, namely the transfer of assets and the right of civil society organisations and local authority employees to challenge local authorities where they believe they could provide services differently or better.

The response to the consultation will form part of a wider Public Service Reform White Paper which will be published early this year.

NAVCA has submitted its response to the green paper and you can find it below. We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to our response by sending us your views, experiences and information and copies of your own submissions. We will keep you informed of further developments.

• Download the NAVCA response to the green paper (Word, 29 KB)

Measuring social value: how five social enterprises did it

In 2009, the Department of Health, with the support of the Cabinet Office, commissioned an action research project on social value.

The results aim to help social enterprises and commissioners better understand the wider impacts of service delivery and quantify the value in monetary terms. Five social enterprises delivering mainstream primary and community care services participated in the action research project.

Read the report.

Modernising Commissioning: Increasing the role of charities, social enterprises, mutuals and cooperatives in public service delivery

The Cabinet Office has published their green paper on commissioning and is looking to NAVCA members for feedback.

This green paper, ‘Modernising Commissioning’ will feed into a white paper to be published early next year. There is therefore a tight timeframe for feeding in your thoughts.

The paper looks at four areas where commissioning could be improved or modernised. These are; new opportunities for civil society organisations to deliver, how to make markets more accessible, assessing a broader definition of value and citizen and community involvement.

NAVCA will be responding to this green paper and we would like to ensure our response reflects the needs of NAVCA members and the organisations you support. Please forward any contributions by 5pm 23rd December to lcpu@navca.org.uk.

If you would like to send any ideas directly to the Cabinet Office, send them to ocscommissioning@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk by the 5th January.

The areas where Cabinet Office wants input are:

1. In which public service areas could Government create new opportunities for civil society organisations to deliver?
2. How could Government make existing public service markets more accessibly to civil society organisations?
3. How could commissioners use assessments of full social, environmental and economic value to inform their commissioning decisions?
4. How could civil society organisations support greater citizen and community involvement in all stages of the commissioning?

There are also a series of sub questions throughout these four headings looking at topics in more detail.

Download the green paper.

New government procurement feedback service for Small Businesses

The government has opened a new online feedback facility to enable suppliers to share their public procurement stories. The service is aimed at SMEs, so would be relevant for most third sector organisations to also use. The intention seems to be to open up a direct way for suppliers to tell central government about ‘barriers’ and ‘red tape’ to securing contracts.

The Cabinet Office will publish a quarterly commentary on the issues that have been highlighted and the actions they propose to address them. So far there are around 30 comments from suppliers covering themes many will be familiar with such as the length of paperwork, size of turnover, use of jargon, insurance and risk.

Feedback can be left on the Number 10 website.

The online facility is for general comments on how procurement processes could be improved, rather than specific processes. For providers with concerns over specific tendering problems, NAVCA has a guide to your options.

DWP releases preferred suppliers list for Framework of the Work Programme

DWP has announced who that it has completed the selection process for the Employment Related Support Services Framework and has made its award decisions.

The names and contact details of the organisations that have been selected as Preferred Suppliers in each of the Lots can be found below.

If local voluntary sector organisations are interested in sub-contracting opportunities for these contracts they would be well advised to follow up these preferred suppliers if they haven’t already. There have been a number of primes advertising for sub-contractors on the industry website, Indus Delta.

In related news, the supply chain standard Merlin now has its own web portal.

View the preferred suppliers list.

Capable Communities: Towards Citizen-Powered Public Services

This report from the Public Sector Research Centre, takes a practical approach to citizens involvement in the design and delivery of public services.

Read the report (free registration required).

Merlin web portal launched

The Department of Work and Pensions announced today that the welfare to work industry has launched the Merlin Web portal.

The portal has been developed for the industry, and by the industry, to help support the development of prime provider supply chains and the sharing of best practice. It will facilitate the development of partnerships with the Voluntary and Community Sector, and act as a shop window for the industry.

This will help improve the accessibility of the market, increasing its transparency to the VCS, and therefore help the sector’s involvement in the delivery of DWP programmes. The web portal also supports the Merlin Standard which has been developed by DWP in partnership with the Welfare to Work Industry, and is the Standard to which all future Work Programme providers must meet to demonstrate excellence in supply chain management.

Daniel Singleton, the National Executive Director of FaithAction who was involved in forming the Merlin Standard said ‘Merlin provides a real opportunity for effective supply chains - it is up to the Prime and Subcontractors to make it work.’

Visit the Merlin Web Portal.

New National Occupational Standards for Commissioning in the Public Sector have been approved and published

Commissioning is a skill set of growing importance within central government and across the wider public sector. The standards produced capture the performance, behaviours and knowledge and understanding that an individual must demonstrate to be considered competent to carry out a particular task within a commissioning role. The standards cover nine areas, broadly covering the whole commissioning cycle from engaging with service users, assessing and reviewing needs, securing provision, using resources and achieving results.

The standards are generic, in that they apply to the commissioning of services from any form of provider. They contain useful performance criteria such as ‘Encourage and promote the active engagement of relevant service users’ and required levels of knowledge such as ‘When alternative funding mechanisms may be used (e.g. grants)’. How these standards are used in practice by local public bodies, and adopted by commissioners will be the interesting thing.

Download the standards