Prynhawn Da/Good Afternoon,
And thank you to Cardiff-based, Kathryn Jellings, Head of Employment Programmes at 3SC, for inviting me to sponsor and speak at today’s event, “The Role of the Third Sector in Delivering Public Sector Contracts in Wales”.
3SC are a UK wide social enterprise established in 2009 to bid for public and other contracts, and provide other services which have a clear social impact, harnessing the power of the third sector to deliver these contracts via organisations that otherwise lose out - with 3SC managing the entire contract.
They successfully launched their position paper, “The Crisis in Public Sector Contracting and How to cure It”, in Westminster this summer following the Carillion collapse.
This argues that public procurement needs an overhaul and needs to recognise the value that smaller (third sector) organisations can bring.
At today’s event they are launching their position paper “The Crisis in Public Sector Contracting and How to cure It” in Wales – highlighting some of the challenges that the third sector face in relation to public sector procurement and some thoughts on how these could be addressed.
3SC’s vision is of the third sector delivering an increasing share of public services and a greater amount of social impact.
The principal activity of 3SC has been the management of public service contracts.
They are now adding to their business the provision of other services, all of which have a clear social impact and will help grow 3SC for the future.
Their aim is to create a more diverse offer: one that embraces a much wider range of services, solutions and systems and then utilises the creativity and collaborative and complementary style of working that underpins the 3SC model.
3SC manages and wins contracts on behalf of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations.
The delivery of public services is a difficult and competitive marketplace, dominated by large commercial organisations that can lack the person-centred and inclusive approach to public services that the VCSE sector excels at delivering.
3SC gives these VCSE organisations a chance to compete for, and ultimately deliver, such contracts.
As they say “procurement continues to challenge the public sector with the award of government contracts still focused on price.
“It feels like the best procurement solution is not really the objective: the one that is easiest to justify is.
“This mindset will never create great contracting – it just keeps driving us towards one size fits all solutions.
“Outsource to a Carillion or insource to the local direct labour organisation or in house team, the outcome is the same – a monopoly whether public or private. The opportunity for innovation is reduced and the chance to use diversity and local competition to drive up performance is lost”.
Their public procurement report states “Smaller third sector organisations, based in local communities and driven by their mission can provide part of the answer to the problem, but local Government must also recognise this and ensure such organisations are at the heart of future procurements.
“There are many small organisations out there, particularly in the third sector, who deserve a chance to show how they can generate more positive social outcomes out of government contracts. However, they can’t make the cut – excluded because they do not meet financial and application hurdles irrespective of what they can deliver in relation to outcomes for the customer”.
The report also states that “although resistance to new quangos is understandably strong, the strengths of co-design and co-production are clear. The idea of a Public-Private-Third Sector Enterprise Board made up of experts in their fields from each sector has much to commend it”.
In doing this we need to fully embrace Co-production, moving beyond rhetoric and consultation to doing things differently in practice, with service professionals, service users and their communities working side by side to provide solutions.
This is about moving from needs – based approaches to strength based development - helping people in communities identify the strengths they already have, and utilising those strengths with them.
In calling for a radical overhaul of Public procurement, the report concludes by arguing “for more diverse delivery arrangements – delivery arrangements which are no longer dominated by size.
“Even where size is important and the contract needs one prime or lead contractor to manage the relationship, there should still be a requirement for supply chain diversity….” adding that “achieving world class procurement requires a fundamental rethink. The ambition must be for procurement to choose the best providers not the biggest – diversity must underpin solutions. If we want to excel as a country then we have to encourage every service contract to be as good as possible. This will rarely be the case if it is always left to one provider”.
Although the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 ‘Part 2 - Code of Practice and guidance states that it “puts in place a system where people are full partners in the design and operation of care and support. It gives people clear and unambiguous rights and responsibilities” –
Although its Part 3 Code of Practice – Accessing the Needs of Individuals – states that “the assessment process should be based on the principles of co-production ensuring that it involves a relationship where practitioners and individuals share the power to plan and deliver support together”.
AND although its Part 4 Code of Practice states “The local application of the determination of eligibility must support a move away from the deficit model of care (‘what is wrong?’) to an emphasis on strengths, capacity and capabilities” –
- Wales has seen local, community based Third Sector bodies lose contracts and funding in areas ranging from British Sign Language, to Autism, Disability support services to Speech and Language.
This is despite the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act stating that one of the 5 Ways of Working that the public bodies listed in the Act must demonstrate is:
“Collaboration – Working with others – including third sector bodies and communities - to help achieve goals that have been decided together”.
The Third Sector is an important provider of employment in Wales – 2017 statistics suggest that some 116,600 people are employed in third sector organisations in Wales, watering the roots of people and neighbourhoods rather than seeing money wash over them.
This event will provides an opportunity for discussion:
- on the role of the third sector within the context of the industrial strategy, devolution and the renewed focus on corporate governance and accountability.
- and on how smaller social providers can compete for, and deliver large public service contracts.
I am now pleased to introduce Andrea Wayman, Chief Executive Officer of Elite, an award winning social enterprise that provides supported employment services for disabled people.
Elite is one of 3SC’s partners on the Specialist Employability Support Programme.
Andrea will talk about the Elite’s perspective on working with 3SC as a partner - and more widely about the importance of collaboration in contracting.
Diochl