19 December 2008
By Paul Dicken
Problems evaluating the wider benefits of third sector provision of public services continue to act as barriers in procurement, a study has found.
Kevin Brennan, third sector minister, said the government 'must continue to build on the progress made towards a thriving third sector, fully engaged in delivering services that people value and that change lives'. He added that the government remained committed to improving commissioning.
In a two-year review of the Partnerships in Public Services plan, the Office for the Third Sector set out plans for a National Programme on Third Sector Commissioning, set to train 2,000 commissioners by 2011.
The results of a pilot testing the use of 'social clauses' in contracts – stipulations on issues such as taking on unemployed people or raising awareness of recycling – were published on December 11.
They revealed 'real legal obstacles to the use of such clauses, paving the way for focused research on social return on investment, a tool which will put a financial value on an organisation's social impact'.
The research showed there were difficulties in 'measuring outcomes and the costs associated with incorporating social objectives into procurement'. Commissioners were also 'hesitant to consider' including social issues in contracts due to 'a low understanding' of their use.
But in Devon, a social enterprise, Mid-Devon Community Recycling, which provides recycling and composting facilities on behalf of the district council, has helped develop a method of assessing such aspects.
MDCR's chief executive Ken Orchard and council officers from a number of Devon local authorities have drawn up a scoring method that will be used to evaluate sustainability in future tenders.
A report to the Devon Authorities Waste Reduction & Recycling Committee suggests that sustainability considerations form 20% of the overall score for tenders, with price and quality making up the remainder.
Orchard told Public Finance that the method 'valued a whole series of different' social and environmental elements, and was 'closely related' to social clauses.
'Social clauses are really only one way of tackling this. The big thing about the third sector is that we tend to be much more innovative than local authorities,' he said.
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