Central Government Partnership Network, 23-24 September 2024

Are you and your department ready for the biggest shake up to public procurement in a generation?

As the government prepares to implement the new Procurement Act in February 2025, now is the time to look at how we can use procurement for public good.

At our CGPN event on 8 October, event chair Kevin Keith, Chair at UK Open Government Network, hosted an insightful discussion with Philip Orumwense, Chief Technology Officer at Crown Commercial Service, and Rikesh Shah, Head of Innovation Procurement at Empowerment Centre (IPEC), Connected Places Catapult. During the session, our panellists discussed innovation, shared social value case studies, debated transparency and reflected on the new procurement act.

Here’s a roundup of the key discussions:

Procurement as a tool for innovation

During the discussion our panellists provided valuable insights into how procurement can act as a tool for innovation. Phillip began the session by emphasising the agility and suitability of SMEs for government work, highlighting their potential to deliver tailored and efficient solutions.

He shared a compelling case study involving a small UK-based job search engine that collaborated with the Department of Work and Pensions. This SME showcased its agility by rapidly developing a prototype over a weekend, which was subsequently adopted, demonstrating the speed and innovation smaller enterprises can bring to the table.

Phillip stated ‘The opportunities for SMEs to do business with government, is quite huge and expansive. It’s just about looking at the right channels, the right engagement, the right solutions, and pitching your services to hit the core of the outcomes that the buyer is seeking. They’ll get you there faster, quicker, and cheaper. And that’s what government needs.’

Referencing Phillip’s case study, Rikesh noted that advances in technology (e.g., cloud, data, AI) have diversified the supply chain, levelling the playing field for startups, academic spin-offs, and SMEs. He also commented that public procurement must reframe its approach to embrace this diversity and engage the market earlier in the procurement process.

Both panellists stressed the importance of early market engagement to align supplier capabilities with government needs.

Crisis-driven innovation

Resource constraints during crises often force organizations to adopt more creative and mission-driven approaches. Continuing the discussion on innovation and impact, Rikesh discussed how certain challenges during COVID-19 led to rapid innovation.

‘We had to provide a bus service for the key workers, and within that, someone said, well, we don’t want them queuing up too close to each other. So, let’s create a new app and let’s have real time data so that their doctors and nurses know where their bus service is. We did that in two weeks… If that was a normal procurement and a normal delivery, frankly, that would have taken 18 months.’

During a crisis, we often see all departments working quickly together towards a common goal. Rikesh talked about organisations adopting a mission focused culture and how it can be used to drive real change.

‘I think during a crisis, as I say, everyone takes their badges off. They’re very focused on a mission. Of course, you’re still thinking about best value from cost, but you’re also thinking about why the best value.

And I think that’s the sort of culture that we need to adopt. We’ve got things going on right now across the UK where it’s desperate, which means we need to find a new way of working with the market. We need to find new ways of troubleshooting and create these teams that can work in an agile way and experiment a little bit more, build the evidence, and then think about scale at the same time.’

Social value in procurement

Social value considerations are now integrated into public procurement evaluations, with criteria addressing job creation, local economic development, and inclusivity. However, we still need to make sure suppliers are delivering what they promised.

Phillip discussed the inconsistency in evaluating social value submissions across departments, advocating for standardised metrics and accountability. He stated, ‘It’s the extent to which we can truly hold suppliers and their submissions to those social value considerations to hold their feet to the fire, to ensure they deliver against it, and to ensure that it’s an equal playing field for everyone who is making a similar submission.’

When talking about what social value means to him, Phillip praised providers making a difference in their local communities. ‘The best social value that I’ve seen is people working in their NHS, local providers, developing apps that work within the local communities that bring in people with disability, that bring in people who are disconnected from the mainstream.

That’s where we need to be anchoring our submissions on social value, and not something that is hatched together.’

Transparency in procurement

When talking about transparency, Phillip asserted that government procurement is already highly transparent, citing tools like Contract Finder and data scraping efforts his team uses to gather insights.

He suggested that anyone, even SMEs, can challenge procurement discrepancies by writing to relevant authorities or using formal channels like Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

This caused quite a debate amongst our panellists. While agreeing that transparency exists, Rikesh emphasised that it isn’t always actionable or detailed enough for SMEs or startups. He criticised the practice of publishing broad contract scopes and budgets without detailing variations or additional services added later. Rikesh also suggested that improving the granularity and clarity of data could better enable smaller businesses to participate and innovate.

Reflections on the new procurement act

While the new Procurement Act is scheduled to come into effect in February, there is an ongoing consultation to refine it. Phillip encouraged citizens and suppliers to participate in the consultation process by providing feedback on areas that need improvement.

‘We have until February. The consultation is up. Every one of us as citizens, we can write in about our views and perspectives. And for you suppliers, by all means, please take note of that invitation.’

Both Phillip and Rikesh acknowledged that the Act provides an opportunity to align procurement with broader government missions.

Rikesh highlighted that the new government might want to review and extend the Act to ensure it supports their priorities effectively. He stated, ‘The delay is there for a reason, which is the government’s probably not quite happy with how it was positioned by the previous administration. And I think there’s an opportunity to link it to the missions’ work.’

Join us at CGPN next year

Want to take part in future discussions? Register your interest to join us at CGPN on 14-15 October!