Saving money whilst supporting new suppliers

Public Interest Seminar 29 March – BRIEFING PAPER

Focus of the seminar
The Coalition has clearly signalled that it wants to see civil society organisations (charities,
mutuals, social enterprises) taking a bigger role in public service provision and achieving the
goals of a Big Society. But how can this be made feasible in the context of the most severe
spending cuts in decades?
As local authorities and other commissioning bodies look to reshape services at extremely
rapid pace, how can strong relationships with civil society organisations be built and
maintained? What actions, practices and behaviours are needed – both on the part of
commissioners and civil society providers themselves – to square the circle? What kind of
relationship between commissioners and civil society organisations is (a) desirable and (b)
realistic? How would the system need to work?
Policy context
In December, the government published a Green Paper which asked for views on what could
be done to create a level playing field for charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises
bidding for public service contracts. The Green Paper focused on four key questions:
1. In which public service areas could government create new opportunities for civil society
organisations to deliver? (e.g. by introducing payment by results, introducing new rights
for communities to run services)
2. How could government make existing public service markets more accessible to civil
society organisations? (e.g. by cutting red tape, improving transparency)
3. How could commissioners use assessments of full social, environmental and economic
value to inform their commissioning decisions? (e.g. by boosting the awareness and
capacity of commissioners to consider local priorities)
4. How could civil society organisations support greater citizen and community involvement
in all stages of commissioning? (e.g. by rolling out community budgets, developing a new
package of support for local civil society organisations)
The consultation closed in early January and the results are to inform the pending Public
Service Reform White Paper.
Key developments
A number of public services have already been looking to develop the way they provide
support to civil society organisations through the commissioning process. For example
Lambeth Council established a commission to become a ‘Co-operative Council’, resulting in
a recent report which outlines how the Council intends to embed principles of co-operation
and mutualism moving forward. (http://bit.ly/dK2Kh3).
To test the potential for employee-owned organisations to take on more of a role in public
service delivery, the Cabinet Office launched a series of ‘mutual pathfinders’, which are
services from many different sectors which are transitioning to staff ownership. A Mutuals
Taskforce, chaired by Professor Julian Le Grand, has also been established
(http://bit.ly/gw6lUv).

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Where to look for more information

Many organisations that support civil society organisations have produced guidance and
other resources.
For example New Philanthropy Capital recently published Helping grantees focus on impact,
which shows how funders can support charities to measure impact (http://bit.ly/fNCdcY) and
in December NCVO published Funding the Future, a ten-year framework for how the
voluntary and community sector can stay financially resilient when faced with depleted
resources coupled with increasing demand for services (http://bit.ly/e2K7KU).
As part of its public interest research programme, OPM has published a range of resources
to help build awareness and understanding of how to support mutuals to take on more of a
role in providing public services. These include a substantial focus on the actions and
behaviours that commissioners need to take. For example:
• New models of public service ownership, a practical guide to commissioning, policy and
practice, based on a systematic review of the published evidence, and extensive
consultation with experts and sector leaders.
• Shared ownership in practice, which presents findings from our research with public
services that have made the transition to employee and/or community ownership. These
include leisure services in Oldham, children’s services in Lambeth, and healthcare
services in Hull.
Both reports, along with many other publications and resources, are available for free
download from OPM’s website, at www.opm.co.uk.
There are also regular posts about supporting civil society organisations on our blog:
opmblog.co.uk.

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