Third (Voluntary) Sector Partnership Council meeting
7 July 2008
Partnership Council focus on commissioning and procurement
The third sector’s experience of public service commissioning and procurement was the main subject of July’s Partnership Council meeting held in Llay Miners’ Welfare Hall, near Wrexham. The sector’s representatives highlighted some of the long-standing problems to Minister Dr Brian Gibbons and Deputy Minister Leighton Andrews. These included processes that are dominated by public sector provider interests, lack of external or user involvement, confusion about appropriate uses of grants and tendering, and the absence of a level playing field in procurement procedures.
It was agreed that there was some helpful guidance in place. Delivering Beyond Boundaries, the Assembly Government response to the Beecham review, had highlighted the sector’s role both in designing services, and in delivering services. The recently published Value Wales guidance on procuring from the third sector addressed many of the problems that organisations had experience in tendering processes. The Third Dimension, the strategic action plan for the Voluntary Sector Scheme, reinforced the requirement for effective third sector involvement in public service design, commissioning and evaluation, including in arrangements for ensuring service scrutiny. It included actions to secure greater visibility and recognition for the sector in procurement, and to encourage appropriate use of “social clauses” in contract specifications.
Partnership Council members, however, highlighted the need for more to be done to improve commissioning and procurement, and to achieve more consistent practice at local level across Wales. The meeting agreed that the priority for commissioning and procurement was to achieve better quality services, and not simply to reduce costs. The value of long term relationships and two way dialogue between commissioners and providers was emphasised
The sector put forward a number of recommendations, including:
- The principle of third sector involvement in commissioning decisions about service delivery options should be explicitly endorsed by the Assembly Government and promoted through formal guidance;
- The Assembly Government should develop more detailed guidance on the circumstances in which grant funding should be used in public service delivery, and should actively endorse an investment and partnership approach in the right circumstances
- The Value Wales guidance on procuring from the third sector should be implemented by all parts of the Assembly Government, its Sponsored Bodies and health bodies, and actively promoted to local authorities
- Work on developing social clauses should be the subject of consultation with the third sector
- The nature of the sector’s involvement in commissioning, and the extent to which it plays a bigger part in a mixed economy of provision, should be assessed and reported on as part of public service inspections and reviews
Dr Brian Gibbons and Leighton Andrews welcomed the discussion and recommendations, some of which were already being addressed through the implementation of the Third Dimension. They agreed to consider the recommendations and continue the discussion about these at the next Partnership Council meeting in November.
The Voluntary Sector Partnership Council will hold its next meeting in Merthyr Tydfil on 6 November 2008. Minutes from the July meeting will be made available on www.wcva.org.uk on the Policy and Research pages. For more information on the work of the Voluntary Sector Partnership Council and the Voluntary Sector Scheme contact Mirriam Nasrat (mnasrat@wcva.org.uk)
