Procurement and Partnership Best Practice A case study of Community Links and the London Borough of

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Procurement and Partnership Best Practice A
case study of Community Links and the London
Borough of Newham

• Max Weaver
• 23 May 2006

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Quotes from the March 2006 Report on Employ ULV
Network Forum Survey

• What do you see as the main barriers to
  partnership working, and cross referral of
  beneficiaries?
• Public funding (such as LSC and European funds)
  is becoming increasingly bureaucratic and
  evidence requirements more onerous and the
  expectations of funders becoming unrealistic.
• However it is likely that further discussion of
  this topic will be necessary to fully understand
  the thoughts of Network Forum members on these
  issues. (Page 17)

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Horizontal partnershipsThe main focus of the
partnerships in the survey
Funder
Lead Delivery Contractor
Other Delivery Contractor
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Vertical partnershipThe main issue for
Community Links
Funder (LBN)
Multiple contracts over many years - for
Community Links to deliver services funded by (or
through) LBN
Do multiple contracts constitute a
partnership?
Or simply a large bundle of insecure arrangements?
Community Links as Delivery Contractor
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The context of the partnership

• Goodwill
• Longevity
• Volume
• Mutual recognition of significant
  inter-dependence
• Multiple funding streams, with divergent
  practices
• Mostly one year, some two year, contracts
• Procurement (see later)
• Grants and contracts

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Practical issues

• Cash flow
• Full cost recovery
• Understanding the overhead
• Political sensitivity (A politicians view might
  be that the voluntary sector is voluntary and
  does not need overheads)
• Reinforcing capacity
• Capital
• Training
• Surpluses
• Demonstrating (entails measuring) the voluntary
  sectors additionality

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Sustainable partnerships 1Sustainable
organizations

• Truly sustainable partnerships require both (or
  all) parties to be sustainable organizations
• At bottom, organizational sustainability is a
  function of organizational wealth
• Organizational wealth can be manifest as any or
  all of
• property assets
• endowments and other wealth
• reserves
• a pattern of significant surpluses

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Sustainable partnerships 2The dynamics of
partnerships

• The basic variables in include
• Economic power
• He who pays the piper calls the tune
• Information
• Information is power
• Willingness to share responsibility
• Entails some mutual sacrifice of autonomy and
  control
• Obligations that recognize mission and governance

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Sustainable partnerships 3Rhetoric or reality?

• The partnership concept is used widely as a
  rhetorical device to evoke the notion of
  equality between partners.
• This equality purports to include some joint
  determination of objectives and of the means of
  achieving them.
• Merely because governments or other agencies
  declare an arrangement as a partnership, it does
  not follow ipso facto that it is a partnership.

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Sustainable partnerships 4Success conditions

• Mutual trust and respect
• Where mutual trust is high, partnerships can be
  genuinely communicative, determined more by
  their commitment to continued collaboration than
  by the stronger partys need to fulfil its own
  objectives.
• Significant commonality of objectives
• Partnerships can also be used by funders to
  secure the more or less willing collaboration of
  economically weaker partners in the achievement
  of the funders predetermined objectives by the
  funders predetermined means.
• Clarity in structuring the agreement
• Simplicity in operation

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Partnership and procurementIdeas in tension

• The Public Contracts Regulations 2006
• 4(3) A contracting authority shall (a) treat
  economic operators equally and in a
  non-discriminatory way and (b) act in a
  transparent way.
• 8(4) the relevant threshold is usually 211,000
• 11-22 Detailed procedural requirements
• But the criteria are the most important feature
  (see next slide)

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Public procurement criteria 1

• 30(1) A contracting public authority shall
  award a public contract on the basis of the offer
  which
• (a) is the most economically advantageous from
  the point of view of the contracting authority
• OR
• (b) offers the lowest price
• The choice between (a) and (b) is key

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Public procurement criteria 2 Most economically
advantageous

• Depends on the following, the weighting of which
  must be stated in advance Reg. 30 (2)(3)
• Quality Can we measure and demonstrate
  additionality?
• Price Temptation to bid below full cost
  recovery
• technical merit, aesthetic and functional
  characteristics
• environmental characteristics
• running costs
• cost effectiveness Can we measure and
  demonstrate additionality?
• after sales service and technical assistance
• delivery date and delivery period and period of
  completion