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
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exercises can be tested against the objectives that they were intended to meet, and against the principles set out in draft guidance on social care procurement currently being consulted on.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.
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.
“TenderWatch”
A number of public authorities in Scotland are currently running competitive tendering exercises for social care and support services. Details of these exercises can be found on the relevant Local Authority Pages of this website.