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Public procurement in social services markets - Encouraging the use of social considerations


[19/12/2008]

In mid-March the Third Sector European Network (TSEN), Community Service Volunteers (CSV) and SOLIDAR joined forces and organised a comparative seminar in London focusing on practices of commissioning personal social services from non-governmental organisations across Europe. SOLIDAR members from the United Kingdom (currently implementing a National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning) and six other countries sketched out both the framework conditions for and experiences with the usage of public procurement in different sectors, used mostly in the fields of labour market integration, professional training, and long-term care.

In the wake of broad structural reforms concerning the organisation, regulation, and financing of personal social services, we witness that public authorities are increasingly falling back on procedures of public procurement when buying personal social services from the private sector, with national rules framed by European directives on public procurement. These often entail complex contract-based models, the need to politically pre-define and administratively weigh quality concerns and criteria, as well as comprehensive assessment and reporting obligations. Indirectly, a shift towards bigger, often no longer locally-based structures, and a move from a more partnership-based to a stronger hierarchy-driven relationship between public authorities and civil society organisationsis being favoured.
 
Some positive effects, like more transparency on the usage of public money and the reduction of clientelism, as well as problems for social enterprises, their users or their workforce were also assessed during the conference. Of major concern is the insufficient adaptation of technical requirements to the specificities of social services and their users. And, more generally, the conference debates revolved around the compatibility of using public procurement procedures with standardised products and processes in the field of personal social services where quality strongly depends on an individual case approach. Speakers and participants also mentioned that commissioners often disregard the wider implications of their decisions, meaning that over time, general interest or local community objectives are not sufficiently taken into account.
 

Encouraging Public Authorities to Make Better Use of Social Considerations When Buying Goods and Services | Directive 2004/EC/18 award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts



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