With English councils spending over £40 billion a year with 200,000 suppliers, new guidance has been published in a bid to improve the management of local authority contracts with the private sector.
‘You and Your Contractor’ encourages councils to adopt a more commercial approach to contract management to make sure that the intended benefits of a contract are delivered and best value is achieved.
The guidance was funded by the London Centre of Excellence (LCE) and prepared by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
Written in a step-by-step style and illustrated by a range of case studies, the guidance recommends that:
for strategically important contracts, senior management buy-in is essential from the outset and continued throughout the post-contract phase contract and relationship management is built into the procurement process right from the start effective performance frameworks are embedded within the contract risk must be properly managed
It follows a review of contract relationship management across 16 local authorities in London. The findings support other studies which have found that many important public sector contracts have not delivered their intended benefits because of a failure to manage effectively either the contract or the relationship between the client and supplier, or both.
Terry Brewer, Chief Executive of Firebuy, the national procurement body for Fire and Rescue services and project sponsor, said, “The ‘let and forget’ culture in some authorities must not go unchallenged. All too often, an authority will commit a great deal effort into procurement with good intentions only to waste it over the life of the contract. This guide will encourage authorities to pay more attention to this sometimes neglected area.”
Ken Cole, Director of the LCE, said, “Good contract and relationship management are central to delivering the wider efficiency agenda. Public sector bodies that take it seriously and invest in the people and processes needed to make it a reality are far more likely to deliver top quality services at less cost than those that do not.”
Rob Leak, Chief Executive of the London Borough of Enfield and chair of the LCE management board, said, “There is no doubt that there is room for improvement and I would urge all local authorities to follow this excellent guidance to drive up standards of contract management. Just in London, local authorities spend over £9 billion a year with third party contractors, so successful management of contracts and relationships is vital if we are to deliver efficient and high quality services that the public expect.”
‘You and Your Contractor’ can be found at www.lcpe.gov.uk
