Fiona Mactaggart

In an article for ePolitix.com, Home Office minister Fiona Mactaggart makes the case for government departments to procure more services from the voluntary sector.

Voluntary and community groups have a key role to play in providing public services which are high quality and responsive to the needs of all sections of our communities. Many find it difficult to compete for public procurement opportunities and public procurers are often unaware of what the voluntary and community sector has to offer.

Yet this is about to change with the publication of good practice guidance produced by the Home Office and the Office for Government Commerce on procurement of services from the voluntary and community sector entitled "Think smart... Think voluntary sector". And rightly so – procurement is one of the key ways in which we put policies into practice.

When done well procurement can have an enormous, positive impact on people's quality of life.

The value for money and innovation that voluntary and community organisations can bring to the delivery of public services has made me realise how important it is to ensure that our procurement is accessible and focused on the best quality result.

To give an example, the extensive drug treatment services being delivered under CARATs (counselling, assessment, referral, advice and through care) to offenders in custody across the country would simply not have been possible without the expertise of voluntary and community organisations and their special understanding of needs of disadvantaged groups.

Yet good procurement practice is by no means widespread. There needs to be greater recognition that involving the voluntary and community sector in the right way is good for business. To do this we all need to understand the barriers which the voluntary and community sector can face in bidding for government contracts.

We need to ask:

• Has the "added value" of the voluntary and community sector been considered?

There might be initial practical difficulties, but they can offer value that can't always be offered by bigger organisations.

Voluntary and community organisations typically have established links with the local community and often have a greater understanding and experience of client needs based on these links, especially in black and minority ethnic communities. Similarly, they have a strong capacity to innovate and are more likely to provide services in those areas where, for one reason or another, the private sector is not interested.

A typical example is in the area of helping long-term unemployed people back to work. Getting London Working, a project run by Tomorrow's People, targets chronic unemployment in deprived areas of Lambeth, Southwark, Islington and Camden, helping unemployed people to secure skills and assist with all aspects of job search and preparation for a move into employment.

Often, clients face multiple barriers to employment such as physical or mental health problems. But by spending as long as necessary to really understand their barriers and to build trusting relationships Getting London Working has achieved outstanding rates of job retention with the hardest to help.

• Have efforts been made to ensure the voluntary and community sector is not excluded from bidding even before the process has started?

Potential suppliers, including the voluntary and community sector, should be involved when policy is first being formulated and new services are being planned. This can help test viability, tap knowledge and expertise and establish the extent of existing provision. Too often, the first that voluntary and community organisations learn about a new project or service is when an advert is placed in the paper inviting bids or when the tender documentation arrives.

• Has consideration been given to the advantages of dividing a larger contract into smaller lots?

While larger contracts might bring reduced management costs they do not always bring the best value for money.

• Are large national providers really best placed to offer the specialist local understanding needed to deliver some forms of service?

Breaking contracts down in to smaller units allows for smaller organisations to bid on equal terms. Similarly, there may be opportunities for voluntary and community organisations to be sub-contractors, particularly where they can provide specialist services.

When I talk to voluntary and community organisations that deliver public services I am consistently told about the bureaucratic and time-consuming pre-qualification procedures.

When I launched "Think smart... Think voluntary sector" at a Home Office procurement symposium looking at supplier diversity on June 9, I heard numerous examples from fellow speakers of pre-qualification questionnaires that stretched to over 60 pages. This is a real barrier to participation and a significant drain on resources, especially for smaller organisations.

Purchasers must ensure that information required at pre-qualification stage is proportionate to the size and complexity of the contract and consideration must be given to whether each piece of information collected will be used and whether it really is going to be effective in assessing capability and selecting candidates. I am delighted that the Office of Government Commerce is piloting a common core pre-qualification document for lower value contracts and look forward to its rollout nationally, starting later this year.  It will then be down to public sector organisations to use it.

These are real ways in which change can happen and the quality of public services can be further improved. I would encourage everyone involved in procuring services for government to get hold of Think Smart and see what can be done to boost participation by the voluntary and community sector in the successful delivery of service contracts.

It’s not just about understanding the barriers which small or voluntary and community organisations face in trying to win procurement contracts. It's not just about being aware of the benefits that the sector can offer.

It's about changing mindsets of all those involved in the procurement process and recognising the importance of developing a more diverse set of suppliers who have the confidence to innovate and to produce excellence and keep the focus on the customer – the patient, the passenger or the parent.

Publication and launch of the Think Smart guidance is just the beginning of this. The Home Office Active Community Unit will be continuing its programme of work to make sure that what is considered good procurement practice with the voluntary and community sector now becomes the norm in the future.

Fiona Mactaggart is parliamentary under-secretary of state for race equality, community policy and civil renewal.

The "Think smart...think voluntary sector" website is at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/active/funding/index.html