Public service delivery

Commissioning and Procurement Code for Hampshire

Read the Commissioning and Procurement Code

This code of practice supports the delivery of the Hampshire Local Area Agreement (LAA) outcome “Empower local people to have a greater voice and influence over decision making and the delivery of services”. It will apply to all public sector partners of the Hampshire LAA and the Third Sector, and was endorsed by the Hampshire LAA Executive in June 2008. The code is also a supporting document to the One Compact for Hampshire.

Executive Summary

The terms commissioning, procurement and contracting are often used interchangeably. This leads to confusion and poor understanding.

For the purpose of this Code the following definitions apply:

“Commissioning means the entire cycle of assessing the needs of people in a local area, designing services and then securing them.

Procurement covers the specific activities within the commissioning cycle that focus on the process of buying services, from the initial advertising through to the final contract arrangements.”

Recent government guidance indicates that commissioning and procurement with the third sector should include:

identifying and understanding existing need, as well as anticipating future need
understanding the preferences and priorities of service users
understanding what resources and provision are already available
identifying gaps in provision
capacity building to meet future needs
agreeing priorities for action and service specifications
ongoing dialogue with providers and Third Sector organisations representing service users and/or communities
joint monitoring and review

This code aims to change behaviour so that these principles become part of the culture of the way the public and third sectors work together in Hampshire.

The code is intended to mark a step change in how commissioning and procurement engages Third Sector partners within good practice and legislative requirements. It focuses on:

analysing need and agreeing service priorities
planning services and contract specifications
tendering and contracting
reviewing services

There are a number of appendices. In particular, Appendix 1 outlines joint good practice, and Appendix 3 lists resources and help for third sector organisations.

Contracting to deliver public services – the experience of organisations in Hampshire

Contracts with public sector bodies, rather than grants, are on the increase. To further our understanding of this issue, CAH carried out a survey, in partnership with other Hampshire Councils of Voluntary Service (CVSs), to look into the local experience of contracting with the public sector and see if there is a shift from grants to contracts. Against a backdrop of government ‘talking up’ the role of the VCS in service delivery, a survey was undertaken by Community Action Hampshire, in partnership with Hampshire CVSs, which aimed to understand the experience of organisations in Hampshire to contracting to deliver public services, and the attitude of organisations not currently involved in contracting. CAH published a report on the findings early in 2007. These included:

39% of respondents held contracts with public bodies
71% of organisations holding contracts believe that purchasers see their organisation as a ‘professional’ service; however just under half felt that purchasers understand the ‘added value’ VCOs bring to service delivery
nearly a quarter were working to unsigned contracts
where organisations had decided during the last two years not to tender for a contract, the main reason given was that the requirements of the purchaser were too onerous
there was no strong indication from those not already involved in contracting that they would be considering doing so in the near future

Read the report in full.

The survey generated responses from a wide range of organisations, from big service providers to small organisations operating at a very local, neighbourhood level. Its findings were in line with other surveys, eg the CAH Survey of Grants and Contracts carried out on behalf of HCC’s Children’s and Adult Services departments, and a national Charity Commission survey, Although the government is pressing hard on the contracting and public service delivery agenda, many in the sector voiced concerns about whether this is the right way to go, and whether there is any appetite for it. This piece of research was able to evidence the Hampshire experience, instead of relying on anecdotal information.