FEATURE
Small But Mighty Chris Wilson, Managing Director of public sector procurement platform adam,
explains why creating a level playing field for small care providers will prove to be beneficial for everyone.
In 2015 the government announced ambitious targets to increase its spending with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to £1 in every £3 by 2020, opening up the market and enabling them to compete on a level playing field. However, recent data from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has shown that they are likely to miss this target. Spending with SMEs is actually falling, as is the number of SMEs expressing an interest in competing for a public sector contract. This has important implications for local authorities, care providers and the people they care for.
https://fsb.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/stacked-procurement-system-locking-out-smaller-firms
Research from Birmingham University and the CQC has found that small social care providers can oſten provide better, more personalised care than larger ones. They found that smaller providers also deliver a more valued service, helping people who require care to do more of the things they enjoy, while ‘micro-enterprises’ (employing five or fewer full time staff) oſten demonstrate greater innovation. Many SMEs are also able to provide niche services that larger organisations may not be interested in pitching for.
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2015/06/social-care-microenterprises-23-06-15.aspx
This shows that ensuring smaller care providers can access local authority and NHS contracts is in everyone's interests. Doing so enables more people to benefit from high quality care, while helping smaller care providers to create jobs. As
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the FSB points out, this also creates greater competition, which provides the public sector with better value for money.
The challenge facing smaller care providers is that the procurement system is oſten stacked against them. Firstly, some authorities do not advertise all their contracts, despite being required to do so by law. If a local (SME) provider wishes to apply for a contract, they will oſten face a long and costly procurement process, subject to harsh and unsustainable terms, and enter a framework contract with no guarantee of business. This can make the local council or NHS body a very unattractive customer to an SME, simply because the procurement process is so costly and complicated.
Some authorities have moved away from these frameworks to adopt more simple, open, and dynamic purchasing arrangements, sometimes termed Dynamic Purchasing Systems. These open contracts allow a ‘live framework’ which suppliers can join at any time, and are underpinned by Public Contract Regulations principles such as transparency and fairness, creating a level playing field on which SMEs can compete. This approach must be run through electronic means, providing quicker and more simplified interactions than traditional methods.
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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