Hot Topic: Commissioning, Tendering & Procurement
Commissioning, procurement and tendering have become the key enabling processes that facilitate the involvement of the voluntary sector in the provision of publicly-funded support and care services in Scotland’s communities. As such, they are major areas of interest and concern to CCPS and its members.
The key issue for providers is the tension between a public procurement reform agenda which promotes the advertising of social care services as contract opportunities to be awarded through competitive tendering, and social care policy imperatives that emphasise the need for a shift towards personalisation, greater involvement and control for individuals in the design and delivery of their support, and partnership working with service providers. The manner in which a number of recent service re-tendering exercises have been taken forward has highlighted this tension and caused considerable concern within the sector.
CCPS is working to promote good practice in tendering and procurement for care and support services, and to highlight the impact of service re-tendering on the sector, the workforce, the market for services, and the people who depend on them. CCPS is also working to promote the development of long-term commissioning strategies within which procurement and tendering activity can be appropriately managed.
On this page, you will find a range of information, links and resources, and details of the work being taken forward by CCPS and its members in this area.
Latest news
Public Audit Committee takes evidence from CCPS on commissioning
CCPS has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament Public Audit Committee following publication of the recent report from Audit Scotland, Commissioning Social Care. Appearing before the committee alongside colleagues from Scottish Care and LTCAS (Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland), the CCPS Director highlighted the key issues for providers arising from local authorities’ failure to adopt a strategic commissioning approach, and their increasing use of competitive tendering as a way to manage the market for care and support. The committee was keen to follow up Audit Scotland’s remarks that “there is a risk that councils focus on the potential to reduce costs when they introduce self-directed support.” CPCS told the committee that, in our view, “self-directed support is a policy and a principle, not a cost-cutting system. Although there is evidence that, when empowered to choose and design their own support, some people design something that costs less than that which might otherwise have been arranged for them, we cannot and should not assume from the outset that that will happen in every case.”
The full transcript of the evidence session is at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=6999&mode=pdf.
Living Wage issue highlighted in Parliament
Questions have been asked in Parliament recently about the possibility of extending the £7.20 hourly rate, proposed as a ‘Living Wage’, to employees of all organisations who undertake public service contracts. The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, Alex Neil MSP, responded in a written answer that he awaits the outcome of a decision by the European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, to find out if this would be compatible within EU law.
CCPS has long urged for the need for the Living Wage to be extended across the whole public services-funded workforce, including the private and voluntary sector, rather than being limited to those employed directly by the public sector. CCPS gave evidence to the Local Government Committee’s recent Inquiry into a Living Wage in December last year, and looks forward to hearing the outcome of the Minister’s request. Additionally, CCPS will be particularly interested to discover, if public sector contracts are allowed by EU law to make the Living Wage a specified criterion in commissioning for contracts, what the Minister will do to encourage the relevant authorities to be prepared to meet the additional costs that bidders will then be required to submit.
Audit Scotland report into social care commissioning
CCPS welcomed Audit Scotland’s report on social care commissioning, published on 1st March, which highlights the failure of Scotland’s councils to improve the way they commission care and support services for vulnerable people. The report bears out the long-standing concerns of voluntary organisations about the shortcomings of commissioning and procurement, and offers a timely reminder of the improvements that need to be made. The recommendations of the report lend weight to the calls previously made by CCPS for more robust government action on commissioning, as Audit Scotland found “little evidence of significant improvements” since councils were inspected by SWIA in a series of performance inspections that began more than eight years ago. The report makes it clear that councils cannot provide care services that meet local needs and are of good quality without a robust commissioning strategy in place.
CCPS will give evidence on the report to the Scottish Parliament Pubilc Audit Committee on 25 April: you can read our written submission to the committee here.
CCPS welcomes positive step forward in EU procurement review
Proposals for a revised Public Procurement directive
have been welcomed by CCPS as a positive step towards better
procurement of social services, with potentially less frequent
competitive retendering, and which will enable authorities to give more
prominence to service quality and continuity.
The EU proposals, announced in December, respond very closely to all the points that CCPS raised on behalf of providers in last year’s related consultation.
While much of what is proposed is welcomed by CCPS, further clarity is
needed, particularly around the extent to which existing Scottish
Government guidance and policy on competitive tendering for social care
will change, given that the EU Treaty principles of ‘transparency’ and
‘equal treatment’ will still apply.
The Scottish Government has
sought views on the proposals from CCPS and other key stakeholders to
inform negotiations with the UK Government and the European Commission
later this month. CCPS will continue to keep a close watching brief on
this issue, as the European Commission is pressing for the new
Directives to be adopted by the end of 2012 and transposed into
legislation by June 2014.
Scottish Parliament debates Social Care Procurement issues
Jackie Baillie MSP introduced a motion on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party, which was debated in the Scottish Parliament chamber on Thursday 15 September. The motion was as follows:
*S4M-00854 Jackie Baillie: Procurement of Social Care Services—That the Parliament notes the 5% real-terms cut to the local authority settlement by the Scottish Government; further notes the demographic and financial challenges facing local government in the delivery of social care; recognises that these financial pressures have resulted in substantial reductions in service, with some care providers proposing changes to staff terms and conditions and pay cuts of up to 23%, leading to unprecedented industrial action; further notes the increasing postcode lottery of care, with differing criteria for eligibility and charges across Scotland; believes that the procurement of social care is characterised by short-term decisions based on reducing the cost of existing services rather than having a focus on the improvement, development and redesign of services to provide long-term value for money; further believes that quality and continuity of care is of primary importance and cannot be achieved on the cheap, and calls on the Scottish Government to bring forward a framework for social care to ensure consistency and raise standards for the benefit of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
This debate was of significant interest to CCPS and its members, as CCPS has for a number of years worked to highlight issues around social care procurement practice and the risks involved, and has worked with the Scottish Government and COSLA to produce detailed guidance on social care procurement aimed at mitigating these risks. However this motion is timely as it questions how far the guidance is being applied in practice and is concerned that it needs stronger enforcement mechanisms to be truly effective. CCPS has prepared a briefing on this issue, which was distributed to MSPs ahead of this debate, and further evidence of the work that CCPS has done on this topic can be viewed on the Hot Topic Commissioning, Tendering and Procurement page on the CCPS website.
CCPS welcomes Audit Scotland's performance audit into commissioning social care services
CCPS welcomes the announcement from Audit Scotland that they are to undertake a performance audit into the effective and strategic commissioning of social care services, on behalf of the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General.
Since the Local Government Committee’s investigation into commissioning and procurement practice in Scotland, to which CCPS gave evidence in February 2010, CCPS has repeatedly expressed concerns about commissioning practice and procedure, and encouraged the need for detailed independent scrutiny to be undertaken into the range of procurement exercises across Scotland.
CCPS is pleased to support this study by Audit Scotland, and to be represented on the associated Project Advisory Group by CCPS Director Annie Gunner Logan, on behalf of CCPS members.
This investigation into procurement practice is timely, after the launch last week of the final report from the Christie Commission, where CCPS’ concerns about effective commissioning were also reflected, with the resulting recommendation by the Commission that public sector procurement needs to be rebalanced in favour of effective and positive outcomes for service users and their families, and away from consideration solely on cost efficiencies.
CCPS urges European Commission to improve procurement rules
CCPS is urging the European Commission to refine and improve EU public procurement policy, expressing the strong view that current arrangements are not fit for purpose in relation to contracts for social care services.
In its response to a Commission Green Paper on procurement, issued for consultation earlier this year, CCPS highlights providers' experiences of competitive tendering in social care and points out that "research clearly demonstrates that the application of EU procurement policy to social services has impacted negatively both on the social services workforce and on service quality, chiefly because quality in social services is not amenable to evaluation or scoring by public authorities as a paper exercise."
The CCPS submission addresses a range of areas for consultation, including the proposal that the distinction between Part A and Part B services be removed; the potential for authorities to give much more consideration to a potential provider's track record and past performance; and whether authorities should be able to set requirements in areas other than those directly related to the contract, for example workforce conditions.
CCPS ends its submission by emphasising that in its view, "social services are entirely distinct from other types of public contract...we feel very strongly that they should be subject to a discrete set of rules that recognise their specific features and do not treat disabled and other vulnerable citizens in effect as ‘commodities’ whose support can be tendered on the open market in a similar way to office furniture, refuse collection or any number of other public contract opportunities."
The full CCPS submission can be viewed here; the Green Paper and consultation document can be accessed at this link: http://ec.europa.eu/news/business/110128_en.htm.
CCPS becomes a member of the Scottish Government's Social Care Procurement Development Group
The Scottish Government has recently formed a Social Care Procurement Development Group which aims to lead on the implementation of the recently-issued procurement guidance (see news story below). CCPS is now represented on this group by Annie Gunner Logan, to ensure that provider issues relating to the procurement of care and support services are addressed in the development of wider policy and good practice across Scotland. CCPS members can find out more about this group by accessing the Working Groups pages on the secure members' section of the website, either by clicking on the general link on the left hand side of this page, or by using this direct link to the password-protected Development Group page.
CCPS welcomes procurement guidance
CCPS welcomes the publication of Scottish Government guidance on the procurement of care and support. CCPS has endorsed this guidance since its inception, as it provides a much clearer outline of the steps that need to be taken in any decision to put an existing service out to tender, and sets out key expectations on authorities in terms of user and carer consultation and engagement during tender exercises. It is hoped that the guidance will enable local authorities to approach the issue of social care procurement more flexibly, and the guidance will be a useful resource for providers wishing to engage with councils about how they run tenders and other procurement activity; if the guidance is followed it should go a long way towards avoiding the very poor practice which has happened in some recent cases.
The guidance is the culmination of a process begun by CCPS three years ago, when CCPS' first position statement on competitive tendering in care and support was produced, and a meeting with the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) was sought. The subsequent publication of a CCPS report on the impact of tendering gave further impetus to this initiative, and in early 2009 the Scottish Government embarked on a process which has now resulted in this much-anticipated guidance document. A Development Group is to be convened shortly, which will monitor use of the guidance, and CCPS will be a key part of this.
CCPS submits response on draft procurement guidance
CCPS has submitted its response [pdf-152kB] to the draft procurement guidance issued by the Scottish Government. The response welcomes the guidance, noting the importance of the official acknowledgement it gives to the fact that procuring social care services is not the same as procuring other goods and services, and the clear principles for social care procurement it sets out.
CCPS is particularly pleased to see the suggestion in the document that local authorities need not always retender services, although would hope to see mention of this issue strengthened in the final document, and caveats relating to it removed.
Local Government Committee backs CCPS call for independent scrutiny of procurement exercises
The Local Government Committee of the Scottish Parliament has supported CCPS’ call for further scrutiny of social care procurement in Scotland, in order that both the process and the outcome of procurement exercises can be tested against the objectives that they were intended to meet, and against the principles set out in draft guidance on social care procurement currently being consulted on.
In response to a letter to the Committee from Annie Gunner Logan, CCPS Director, members agreed that there is a need for detailed independent scrutiny of a range of procurement exercises already completed in Scotland, with a focus on issues such as whether the impact on the local market for care was positive or negative; what effect the procurement had on the wellbeing of people supported by the services subject to re-tender; whether individuals and families were appropriately involved and consulted; whether the risks of the exercise were properly assessed; whether a council's strategic objectives were met by the exercise; whether the projected savings were made; whether service quality improved; whether workforce transfers were handled appropriately; and whether the procurement as a whole represented value for money.
The committee will now be writing to SWIA and Audit Scotland to take the matter forward and the official report of the Committee session can be accessed on the Scottish Parliament website.
City of Edinburgh Care Tender abandoned
The CEC tender process has now been dropped (see original news story), following the Chief Executive's recommendation that no more awards are made and a report by Deloitte that said that "the execution [of the tender] was not as sufficiently meticulous or thorough as might have been expected". CCPS, and its members, have since been invited by City of Edinburgh Council to engage in future talks regarding the Commissioning Strategy generally for the Council (see news story).
A Parliamentary Question has also been asked within the Scottish Parliament, about the future action to be taken in the light of this failed tender process.
There has also been press coverage in the Scotsman, Times, Herald, Edinburgh Evening News and Community Care magazine.
For more information about CCPS' work on this issue, please follow the links to CCPS Briefings for the Finance and Resources Committee, on the right-hand side of this page.
CCPS Members can obtain further details by following the Members Links to the password-protected Local Authority pages, on the right hand side of this page.
VSSSWU launches TUPE Guidance for Social Care Providers
The CCPS-hosted Workforce Unit (VSSSWU) has recently launched a new TUPE Guidance document, which aims to assist social care managers in understanding TUPE Regulations. This Guidance has been introduced following the findings of a Research Project in 2008/09 with the Centre for Employment Research at Strathclyde University, which showed that voluntary sector social care providers had difficulties in interpreting TUPE Regulations. For a copy of this TUPE Guidance Document, please refer to the adjoining links on this page, under CCPS Publications or you can access this from the VSSSWU section of this website.
CCPS gives evidence to Scottish Parliament post-Panorama inquiry into care procurement
CCPS gave evidence on 3rd June 2009 to the Scottish Parliament Local Government Committee. The committee is undertaking an inquiry into care service re-tendering in the wake of the BBC Panorama programme highlighting the poor standard of care provided by a private company awarded a home care contract by South Lanarkshire Council following an electronic auction. Transcripts of the evidence sessions are available on the Scottish Parliament website. The Committee has written to the Scottish Government and will consider matters further after the parliamentary summer recess.
Scottish Government Joint Improvement Team to produce guidance on social care procurement
The Scottish Government has responded to concerns raised by CCPS and others about the re-tendering of social care services by setting up a programme of work to produce good practice guidance on social care procurement. The programme is being led by the Joint Improvement Team in association with the Scottish Procurement Directorate. Full details of the programme can be viewed on the JIT website.