North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has questioned the First Minister this week over how his Government is ensuring best value for money for public procurement, highlighting the challenges facing the third sector and calling for them to be addressed.
Mr Isherwood has previously described the delivery of public services as “a difficult and competitive marketplace, dominated by large commercial organisations that can lack the person-centred and inclusive approach to public services that the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector excels at delivering”.
Questioning the First Minister in the Assembly Chamber this week over support for the third sector in relation to public sector procurement in Wales, he said more needs to be done.
He said:
“In November I hosted an Assembly event with 3SC, a social enterprise established to bid for public and other contracts, harnessing the power of the third sector to deliver those contracts via organisations that otherwise lose out. At the event they launched their position paper, 'The Crisis in Public Sector Contracting and How to Cure It: A Wales Perspective', highlighting some of the challenges that the third sector face in relation to public sector procurement in Wales and some thoughts on how these could be addressed.
“They said that whilst the social enterprise sector is growing in Wales, the sector remains small and unfulfilled in reaching its full potential, and that the presence of an internal monopoly in many Local Authorities is just as restrictive of innovation and diversity as if the service was being provided by a big private sector outsourcer.
“How, therefore, will you engage with this report to look at its proposals for greater sensitivity in how services are procured and an explicit commitment for third sector and smaller organisations to secure a reasonable share of the public procurement pie?
“Finally, they say problems such as reoffending, housing, disability and employment need co-operation, patience and clear thinking as well as money, but money that is spent not just with an eye to getting the cheapest solution, but the best solution—in other words, ‘Partnerships with Purpose’—will you consider this report?”
The First Minister said he wasn’t familiar with the report, thanked Mr Isherwood for drawing it to his attention and agreed that “winning contracts for small organisations can be a struggle”.
He added: “The Welsh Government has worked with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies to find ways in which small organisations, whether they be small and medium-sized enterprises or whether they be third sector organisations, can come together to collaborate on bids, to create consortiums, to form joint ventures, and in that way improve their chances of getting work through the public procurement process. But if there are interesting and new ideas in the report, then I'd be very keen to study it, and I'm grateful to the Member for drawing it to my attention.”
