After 15 years or so in various organisations, David Shields worked for 10 years as a senior civil servant, latterly as the Managing Director of the Government Procurement Service. That central organisation was charged with putting in place contracts covering billions of pounds worth of procurement spend (and was the forerunner to what is now Crown Commercial Service).
Since the Social Value Act of 2012, public procurement has had real impetus to contribute to wider procurement with purpose-type goals, and Shields is now bringing his commitment, energy and impatience to the Social Value field. He is a non-executive director of the not-for-profit organisation Social Value UK (SVUK) and is driving a grass-roots initiative to identify, capture and spread good practice in social value-related procurement in the UK public sector and even beyond into private firms.
His own interest has grown out of his wider procurement and supply chain experience. “Getting social value through procurement is about understanding suppliers and supply chains, knowing how to collaborate with suppliers - in fact, all the aspects that define successful procurement generally”, he says. “You can deliver social value without sacrificing other benefits”.
SVUK originally took quite an academic approach, looking to identify the key principles around how public policy could bring greater social benefit to citizens and communities in the UK. It did not really focus on procurement, but once Shields got involved he was quick to point out that “if you want to amplify and accelerate social value, then using the £290 billion the UK public sector spends every year with suppliers seems a sensible approach”!
The involvement of Shields means SVUK is now increasingly focusing on understanding the links between procurement and social value and how that contribution can be optimised through “operationalising” good practice.
He’s also known for a willingness to speak honestly and bluntly, which becomes clear when he talks about what is happening too often today in his opinion. “I’m seeing tenders for £50k contracts that are going out to suppliers with a spreadsheet listing 50 different social value areas. Each has a “value” against it, and bidders are supposed to literally tick the box and say what they are going to deliver. That’s not how social value should be managed”.
Rather, buyers, commissioners and senior managers (and even elected representatives) need to be thinking strategically about what really matters to them, and what suppliers can best deliver to support that. “Even when I see suppliers doing things that carry some value, it doesn’t always seem to optimise what they could be doing”, he explains.
As an example, he talks about a contract for banking services for a local authority, perhaps a county or city council. Now the banks bidding might offer to reduce their carbon footprint, or employ more disabled people in their workforce as their social value contribution.
“But what are the council’s top priorities? For many, it is economic success for local businesses, which brings more employment and tax revenue. So couldn’t the social value come from the bidding banks offering a service to support local firms in their financial management? Or offering preferential loans to start-ups or minority-owned firms in the area?”
The point is that buyers should be strategic and pro-active, aligning the social value they seek with the most important priorities and objectives of their organisation. “We need to unlock that strategic conversation”, Shields says.
Whilst there is a lot of activity around the UK public sector, no-one has really taken a lead on co-ordinating this. Central government has been running a consultation on social value in central government contracts. The public phase closed in June 2019 but as of April 2020[1], there has been no output yet, perhaps because of Brexit and now pandemic priorities, yet there is great interest amongst practitioners and many organisations.
Working on behalf of Social Value UK, Shields has created the Contract for Change initiative, and already, over 200 people have expressed an interest, and 100+ have volunteered to get involved with specific workstreams. A steering group has been put together, and various workstreams looking at good practice have been initiated, covering a range of issues across the whole life cycle for procurement of social value. Some of the work had gone on hold, but other members and groups are continuing to work on these issues – and we will really need good practice more than ever when we come out of the current crisis.
Shields is looking to involve a broad range of stakeholders, including the third sector, academics and private sector firms too, who can contribute to the thinking, and learn something themselves; this is not an area where current practice is obviously better in one sector or the other. The outputs are focused on establishing a framework for social value and procurement, while accelerating best practice in government with a clear read-across to procurement with purpose in any organisation.
We wish everyone involved well; we will continue for feature the work of Contract for Change here, and do email Lindsay.Rosul@apsiz.co.uk. if you want to know more or get involved.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/social-value-in-government-procurement?dm_i=2OYA,UVFP,1F73R,3796A,1