< Back to '30th May 2018' briefing
May 30, 2018
Strength in numbers
At Senscot’s AGM last week there was a familiar ring to the discussion. Why, despite all the rhetoric does our sector continue to get crumbs from the public procurement table? Even with the Procurement Reform Bill in place and with its emphasis on community benefit, none of the hoped for changes have occurred. Even if the political will exists, procurement practice appears stuck in the past. If part of the problem is the perception that our sector is too small to compete, part of the solution might be to build consortia. This new how-to guide should help.
Welcome to the P4P Collaboration Toolkit Guidance.
The toolkit is aimed at third sector organisations who are considering working together with others to pool resources, deliver new products / services or to do things innovatively.
The guidance should be used in conjunction with the associated Collaboration Toolkit survey. The survey will ask you to self-evaluate your progress against a range of factors that demonstrate best practice when developing a collaborative project. Each partner organisation should complete the survey separately which will enable you to compare your respective responses.
Once you complete and submit the on-line survey, P4P will generate an excel report based on your responses. P4P will then provide you with a baseline ‘dashboard’ and commentary which you can use to assess how ‘collaboration-ready’ your organisation is. You can use the follow-up survey, thereafter, at any time to record, self- assess and track your progress over time.
The toolkit has been developed by Partnership for Procurement (P4P) to support organisations to self-assess attitudes, capability and hopefully possibilities for collaborative working. P4P is currently supporting organisations to initiate and develop collaborative models for contract delivery.
You can use the toolkit as a quick ‘go to’ guide to collaboration and to track your progress. It has been prepared with three phases that follow the typical lifecycle of a collaborative project.
Whilst the toolkit is most suited to organisations seeking to bid for public sector contracts, much of the guidance provided (especially in phases 1 and 2) is relevant for collaborative working where contract delivery is not necessarily the end goal.
The Scottish Government’s (SG) Social Enterprise Strategy 2016 – 2026 and associated Action Plan, states that organisations have much to gain by working together and P4P is set up to help deliver on this vision to,
“…support work to initiate and develop new co-operative and consortia models… and enable social enterprises to tender for contracts together, find new ways of sharing risk and reward, and deliver on a larger scale – or create a greater social impact – with increased efficiency”.
We welcome feedback from organisations using the toolkit to support its continued development.
You can contact P4P at any time on info@p4p.org.uk if you require support.