The government has launched its white paper on the reform of public services. After much delay the Cabinet Office has published the Open Public Services white paper which will be followed over the summer by 'a wide-ranging discussion with individuals, communities, public sector staff, providers and others with an interest in how public services are delivered' on a dedicated website.  

The paper's plans are based on 5 principles, choice, decentralisation, diversity, fairness and accountability.  

Read the paper here 

Last week, an EU conference on the subject took place in Brussels, and NAVCA joined forces with TSEN to produce a summary of our position that TSEN then presented to delegates.

• Summary of NAVCA position
• Full NAVCA response 
• EU procurement consultation responses  

Contract Law publication

We are currently working towards our next publication, an introduction to contract law. It will be informed by the series of training days that we've been delivering on the same topic over the past year. Keep an eye on our newsletters or tweets to find out when its published.

Competition in Criminal Justice Services

The Government has published its response to the Breaking the Cycle criminal justice consultation it carried out earlier this year. While brief, the response continues to advocate a strong commitment to increased competition and payment by results. It does not comment further on the proposal that organisations contracted to deliver community sentences would be required to deliver the overall sentence - including rehabilitation, public protection and punishment. This could lead to a moral dilemma for many voluntary sector organisations and further limit the voluntary sectors role to sub-contractors. The Ministry of Justice plans to launch an 'Offender Services Competition Strategy' shortly which will provide more details. Watch this space.

New briefing

We have a new briefing on what the world of local health commissioning might look like following recent policy developments. We pull out some key areas for support and development organisations, and local providers of services to think about as they plan for the future. Here is a taster..

The government has published its response to the Future Forum's report on the future of the NHS which broadly outlines its timetable for change. There are some changes to the pace and extent of change. What is clear is that local landscape for public sector involvement in health and wellbeing will change over the next few years. This will inevitably impact the planning and delivery of health services by local charities. It will also create new challenges for support and development organisations with their representative and influence work.

 Continue reading the briefing   

Cabinet office Red Tape Taskforce report

The Cabinet Office Red Tape Taskforce has published its report Unshackling Good Neighbours to consider the impact of red tape on civil society.

Under the 'What stops CSO's growing' question, there is a good chunk of the report dedicated to commissioning. Many of barriers will come across as familiar; here are just three of the recommendations-

"Commissioners should be encouraged not to use open competitive tendering as the default option for all services, especially where no real market exists.

"Commissioners should be encouraged to use grant-aid as a payment mechanism for services delivered by small organisations which is free from the legal risks and complexity of contract law"

"It has been suggested that the assessed cost of tendering should be no more than 2% of the value of the contract up to £500,000 and 1% thereafter."

Contributors to the report included a number of NAVCA members. If the commissioning section is too heavy going for you, you might enjoy Appendix A "Things you can do in your community" bursting 20 common myths.

Read the report here 

A reminder about this essential guide for development workers. Free copies have been posted to every NAVCA member. While stocks last further hard copies can be ordered by contacting lcpu@navca.org.uk 

Non-members can order hard copies for a mere £10 each. A discount applies for bulk orders.

A free electonic version can also be downloaded.

The guide covers:

• what commissioning is
• why it is important for development workers
• ways of supporting organisations
• ideas for working with the public sector

Comment: Localism and procurement

Rachel Rhodes

The Localism Bill and procurement

NAVCA remains busy campaigning to ensure that the Localism Bill delivers what it says on the tin and results in central government power being devolved to local communities. If you want a fuller picture of the Bill, take a look at the dedicated page on our website.

From a commissioning and procurement perspective, I want to focus on one aspect of the Bill, the right to challenge, specifically:  

1. The right to challenge and procurement
2. How the right to challenge may affect the relationship between the voluntary sector and local authorities.  

The right to challenge would give voluntary and community bodies, parish councils and local authority employees the right to propose how they might better run a public service. The council would then be required to give it proper consideration. But that doesn't mean the voluntary and community body, parish council or local authority employees would end up actually running the service. Why not?  

Because once again EU procurement regulations are likely to come into play and the service is put out to procurement, opening it up to bidders from all sectors across Europe and beyond. As procurement processes and the culture of procurement are often weighted against local voluntary sector organisations, we could see this process resulting in more large private companies delivering local public services. This would not result in localism, and as we are always being told in commissioning, it's the outcome not the process that counts.

The issue has been commented on in the House of Lords, where the Bill continues to be debated and amendments proposed. At last this problem has been noticed, Lord Greaves said recently.. 

"...There is little or nothing in this chapter about how the process of procurement will work"

"It is still not clear to what extent, if at all, local commissioners will be able to ringfence particular opportunities"

Another area of concern for NAVCA is to what extent the Right to Challenge would erode existing partnerships between the local authority and the local voluntary sector. Again this has been recognised by the aforementioned Lord Greaves..

"The more I hear this debate, the more I am concerned about the word 'challenge'. I think 'challenge' is wrong because it is an adversarial word..."

I agree, the Localism Bill should result in central government power being devolved to local authorities and local communities. It should not result in the relationship between these two groups being eroded while the private sector moves in and profits from it. To ensure real power for communities, join the Real Power for Communities Campaign.

Until next time, Rach  

Can anyone help with the following request?

We've been asked by local groups if we can find any examples of third sector organisations who have managed to successfully make the transition from holding a contract/grant with the local authority to contracting with/charging individual personal budget holders.

Does anyone know of any related case-studies or know of any organisations that fit the bill and may be willing to discuss this? If you do, please let us know.