4. VIEWS ON THE ORDER: BENEFITS
4.1 Authority perspective
Many authorities welcome the ability to consider workforce matters during procurement, as they feel it will allow them to make more informed choices about contractors, and so raise the quality of services provided. Authorities also believe it will improve competition for their contracts.
Authority views
"It will increase scope to procure effectively following a comprehensive and fair assessment of workforce and employment matters; greater ability to check the quality aspects of an external bid; create confidence in the service to be provided; it will allow in-house and external tenders to be evaluated on the same basis.”
"It will strengthen the competition element; it will provide some reassurance for staff in fear of their jobs"
Authorities anticipate that, as a result of the legislative changes they will feel more comfortable about entering long-term partnerships and believe that this will promote more partnership working with suppliers. The Order will allow authorities to have greater confidence in the recruitment and retention of suitable employees responsible for delivering public services. Authorities also support the legislative changes because it will help them to be sure employees will be protected – especially in the case of staff transfers. Similarly, it should help allay the concerns of transferring staff.
Authority views
"It will facilitate the development of partnership working with service contractors by developing confidence that they will provide staff with continuing levels of employment particularly training, development and promotions"
"It will remove much of the risk of employing poor performing contractors and encourage strategic partnerships"
"It will enable authorities to look at uncomfortable choices for example outsourcing and partnering with greatest confidence that the level of service will be maintained and the staff will be protected"
These views were echoed in the survey. The majority of authorities (and suppliers) believe that having been unable to take workforce matters into account during the procurement process has had a detrimental effect on service quality. Many of the authorities responding to the survey believe that the Order will raise the profile of workforce issues in procurement and will promote innovation in service delivery, as well as allowing them to feel more confident in the continuity of a viable workforce. For more detail see 8a below.
Figure 8a How do you believe that the new Order is likely to affect your authority?
Source: DTLR survey, 2001 (Authorities Q16)
The survey suggests that authorities are less sure about the impact that the Order will have on efficiency of service delivery or the skill-levels of suppliers’ workforces. It is worth noting that, this research was conducted soon after these legislative changes were made and so it is understandable that respondents that respondents would be unclear about the long-term effects of the changes. By far the fewest (10 out of 36) authorities expect the Order to increase their willingness to outsource – 23 authorities anticipate no change. It is worth noting that no authority expects the Order to bring about a decrease in any of the impacts listed.
Respondents were also asked what impact the Order might have in the future on partnering agreements. As in the group discussions, there was generally strong agreement that the legislative changes should promote better relationships and understanding, and greater comfort for authorities about entering long-term relationships. The results are illustrated in Figure 8b.
Figure 8b How strongly do you agree or disagree that the new Order will have an impact on the development of partnering agreements, for the reasons listed?
Source: DTLR survey, 2001 (Authorities Q17)
4.2 Supplier perspective
Suppliers at the group discussions welcome the legislative changes, as they will give them greater opportunity to demonstrate strong approaches to workforce issues. This view was echoed in the survey responses: a majority of suppliers believe that being able to demonstrate how they manage workforce arrangements – particularly in respect of training offered to staff and health and safety policies - would enable them to ‘compete more effectively’ for local authority contracts in the future. Suppliers are little more divided over whether providing information on their policies for promoting employees and their industrial relations records will enhance their competitiveness.
Figure 9 How strongly do you agree or disagree that being able to demonstrate your workforce practices with respect to terms and conditions of employment, health and safety, etc. will enable you to compete more effectively for local authority contracts in the future?
Source: DTLR survey, 2001 (Supplier Q12)
“Large contractors are happy with the Order – they see it as playing to their strengths in terms of the selection stage, but they would not want to see authorities trying to make judgements on how they handle workforces once a contract begins. (authority) Some respondents did, however, disagree that being able to provide information on certain workforce policies/arrangements would allow them to compete more effectively. The reason given for this was (in almost every case) that they considered a particular workforce matter irrelevant in the tendering process. There were, for example, 19 respondents claiming that industrial relations are irrelevant and even 8 saying that skills and qualifications are irrelevant in the tendering process.
Suppliers were asked what impact the Order is likely to have. As can be seen from Figure 10, to some extent, supplier responses reflect the view of authorities. However, some suppliers (although in a small minority) expect the Order to actually cause a decline in some areas – particularly so in terms of innovation in service delivery and authorities willingness to outsource.
Figure 10 How do you believe that the new Order is likely to affect you and other organisations in your sector?
Source: DTLR survey, 2001 (Suppliers Q15)
Figure 11 shows that, whilst suppliers tend to be more divided than authorities, a high proportion anticipate that the Order will have a favourable impact on partnering arrangements. As can be seen below, 42 and 41 (of the 53 responding suppliers) anticipate the Order will promote better understanding, as well as more open relationships, between authorities and their suppliers
Figure 11 How strongly do you agree or disagree that the new Order will have an impact on the development of partnering agreements, for the reasons listed?
Source: DTLR survey, 2001 (Suppliers Q16)
Authorities and suppliers were asked their views on a number of the same issues – their responses are compared in Figure 12. Generally speaking, more authorities expect the Order to have a favourable impact on contracting. The main exception is that suppliers are more likely to believe that authorities will be motivated to outsource more services as a result of the Order. (It is worth noting that suppliers are also more likely to expect the Order to promote partnering arrangements.)
Figure 12 How do you believe that the new Order is likely to affect your authority/you and other organisations in your sector?
Source: DTLR survey, 2001 (Authorities Q16; Suppliers Q15)
Published 6 August 2002
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