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Welcome to the merged National Advisory Group (NAG) and SOPO (Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government) e-bulletin. Feel free to circulate this email to your colleagues and suggest that they sign up to receive it themselves. This bulletin is delivered through our corporate communications service through which you can create or manage your subscriptions and read previous editions of this bulletin.
Transforming public procurement – Procurement Bill introduced
The Procurement Bill was introduced in the House of Lords yesterday following the Queen’s Speech earlier in the week. It is the culmination of over two years of policy development, which has wrapped in views and contributions from right across the procurement community, with local authorities providing the most feedback to the consultation from across the public sector.
From the initial process of gathering ideas, through the formal Green Paper consultation process with over 600 responses, to workshops, seminars and discussions on points of detail, this has been a joint endeavour and we are grateful for all of your input.
The reform package offers an opportunity to create a new procurement regime that is simpler and significantly more transparent. It is intended to give public sector buyers more freedom and flexibility: encouraging innovative new approaches, negotiating and collaborating more with suppliers, and designing the buying process to meet the needs of their specific procurement.
You can access the Procurement Bill and accompanying documentation on the UK Parliament website – where we expect the Explanatory Notes (including a helpful overview and clause-by-clause commentary) to be published soon, alongside any changes made to the Bill as it progresses through Parliament.
The Bill will take several months to complete its passage through Parliament and, following Royal Assent, there will then need to be secondary legislation made to bring some elements of the Bill and the wider regime into effect. There will be a minimum of six months’ notice before it ‘goes live’ – which will not happen until 2023 at the earliest. The existing legislation will apply until the new regime goes live and will also continue to apply to procurements started under the old rules. Guidance will be provided to cover the transition from the old to the new regulations.
You can track updates to the programme on the Government website at Transforming Public Procurement. Over the coming weeks there will be several conferences and events in relation to the programme. We will continue to engage with colleagues across the public sector and supplier community to ensure that everyone is aware of the changes and opportunities which the new regime will offer.
Additionally, the Cabinet Office will be hosting the following webinars to discuss the proposed reforms in greater detail:
The Local Government Association broadly welcomes the proposed reforms to the public procurement including enshrining in law the objectives but we are keen to discuss the details with Government.
We have been working with councils and the Government since the Transforming Public Procurement Green Paper was published in December 2020, helping Government to understand the ways in which councils procure goods, works and services – to enable the new regime to be designed in a way that reduces administrative burdens for councils.
Councils should be allowed to set priorities for procurement based on their local strategic priorities. However, we understand that the Government’s strategic priorities are in line with what most councils are seeking from procurement as set out in the National Procurement Policy Statement.
We welcome the proposal of clearer arrangements for local councils to buy at pace if necessary – the details of which will be developed as part of our dialogue with Government. We also welcome the new exclusion rules to tackle unacceptable behaviour and poor supplier performance and these will also be raised with Government to work through the detail of how this would work with local councils.
Modern Slavery Bill
The Modern Slavery Bill was also outlined in the Queen’s Speech, it will strengthen protection and support for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery and increase the accountability of companies and other organisations to driver out modern slavery from their supply chains.
The Bill will strengthen the requirement for businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more to publish annual modern slavery statements setting out steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. It will:
- mandate the reporting areas to be covered in these statements
- require the statements to be published on a Government registry
- introduce civil penalties to be applied for organisations that do not comply with the requirements.
The requirements on modern slavery statements will also be extended to public bodies – including councils with budgets of £36 million or over.
The Bill is likely to be enshrined in 2023 and, as with the Procurement Bill, there is likely to be a notice period with reporting likely to be required in September 2023. Accompanying webinars, training and guidance are planned to help the sector fully adjust to the changes but, in the meantime, you can access our Modern slavery in supply chains information and resources.
Calls for information from councils
Cornwall Council – measuring supplier satisfaction
Cornwall Council is continuing to develop relationships with its supply chain and measuring the percentage of suppliers who think it’s easy doing business with the council which (to appear as part of the public-facing council plan success measures). The council has stated its aims for this work, as follows:
"We want partners and suppliers to say that we are a great organisation to work with. This will mean improving processes that partners and suppliers have to use be clear about which officers hold which key partner relationships with a focus on supporting Cornwall businesses to be able to work more with us."
Cornwall Council would like to understand what other councils are doing to measure supplier satisfaction, for example, do you use surveys or other tools to get feedback from suppliers? If you have carried out any supplier satisfaction surveys or gathered feedback that you’re happy to share, please email miriam.binsztok@cornwall.gov.uk
Staffordshire County Council – commissioning and procurement of outcome-based home care services
Staffordshire County Council is interested to hear from any councils who have had any experience (successful or unsuccessful) of commissioning / procuring outcome-based home care services (also known as domiciliary services, care in the home, and personalised care and support). Please email joanne.whitehouse@staffordshire.gov.uk if you are willing to share your experiences.
UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF)
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has updated the allocations methodology guidance for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The update sets out the methodology used to allocate the £2.6 billion UK fund across the UK up to the end of the 2024/25 financial year.
New LGA Energy Procurement Category Strategy – stakeholder engagement workshop
Wednesday 18 May, 1.30–3pm | Online
ACE Research at the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) is working with the LGA to support updating our Energising Procurement Category Strategy. The team will be hosting an online workshop to discuss the content of the strategy. If you are interested in attending or would like to be involved in any of the stakeholder development process, please email steph.hacker@theade.co.uk
Wednesday 25 May, 9am–5.30pm | Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (NEC), North Avenue, Marston Green, Birmingham B40 1NT
Connecting buyers and suppliers across the UK’s public sector, Procurex National 2022 will provide a wealth of CPD-certified skills development, networking and collaboration opportunities. The interactive product showcase exhibition provides organisations that are actively operating within official frameworks agreements or exploring ways’ to further develop opportunities across the £290 billion a year UK public procurement marketplace with a chance to showcase their products and services to leading buyers.
Wednesday 25 May, 9.30am–5.30pm | Clothworkers' Hall, Dunster Court, Mincing Lane, London EC3R 7AH
Set against the context of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented economic and social challenges faced by communities across the country, this seminar will explore how public bodies can harness the full potential of social enterprises as purpose-aligned partners to the public sector. Through cases studies, expert commentary and interactive discussions, participants will explore how social enterprises can bring intrinsic social value, agility and innovation, and how they can work with public sector commissioners in relational partnerships at scale to meet the needs of people and communities.
Wednesday 1 June, 1–2pm | Online
Although innovation is widely seen to be vital for the public sector, a key question still stands: how can this innovation be encouraged? Transport for London's Innovation Hub offers a space which lies outside the organisation’s conventional ways of working. By inviting peers from across Transport for London to focus on a problem statement for periods of between 12 and 18 weeks, the Innovation Hub has offered solutions as to how TfL can capitalise on technological advancements to do things better, cheaper and quicker. This session will focus on an internationally recognised, novel way of working, illuminating the universe of potential for innovation that the public sector wields.
Thursday 23–Friday 24 June | The Hayes Conference Centre, Hayes Lane, Swanwick, Alfreton, Derbyshire DE55 1AU
Organised by commissioners for commissioners, the Children's Commissioning Conference is the event to share best practice from across commissioning. This event will include over 30 workshops focused on informing and improving commissioning offering the opportunity to learn from commissioning colleagues and children’s services experts.
The LGA Procurement team manages several LGA webpages dedicated to your needs. Please email guy.head@local.gov.uk if you would like any information added to our webpages:
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