The Public Administration Select Committee has hinted that it may recommend that effective social clauses and commissioning which is more sensitive to smaller and voluntary organisations is adopted by local authority commissioners in its upcoming report on the Big Society.
For the past six months, the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), chaired by Conservative MP Bernard Jenkins, has been taking evidence on the Big Society, to understand how the government can promote and effectively implement it.
This week, it held its fifth session with witnesses, including charity leaders Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo and Kevin Curley, chief executive of NAVCA.
During the meeting, Labour MP David Heyes asked whether small charities had an appetite for big public sector contracts.
Curley said one charity which NAVCA represents, Darby Women’s Aid, would have ambitions to increase their services, but it did not wish to work across the whole of the West Midlands region.
“Many locally-rooted charities want to grow,” he said. “But they do not want to do large-scale service delivery.
“It’s important the local commissioners support these organisations and don’t put them out of business, as there is a trend in commissioning to big contracts led by competitive tenders which follow EU regulation used for massive cross-border contracts."
He added that it was crucial that the same system for commissioning wheeley bins and computer systems was not applied to commissioning advice services or support for vulnerable women.
“Commissioners need to recognise the added value of voluntary organisations, such as volunteering,” he urged. “It’s vital that government takes the lead and tells local authorities and the local NHS that they don’t have to follow European Union public contract regulations for certain services.”
PASC chair Bernard Jenkins said the committee would be interested in making these recommendations in its forthcoming report.
Later in the session, MP Jenkins asked whether big contracting culture had to go out the window, and local authorities be made to adapt to smaller charities.
In response, Sir Stephen said there was much more scope for strategic alliances between the public, private and voluntary sector through consortia.
The topic of commissioning smaller charities was addressed at a PASC meeting on the Big Society earlier in the year, with Conservative MP Nick De Bois saying charities had a 'slim' chance of winning statutory contracts.
