UK Procurement Reform: What can I do now to get ready
09 June 2023
Andrew de Whalley and Owen Inglis Humphrey are Senior Managers with Deloitte Supply Chain and Network Operations Practice.
The Procurement Bill winding its way through Parliament, and the associated secondary legislation is expected to deliver the biggest changes in decades to how public procurements are managed.
Current guidance suggests a go-live date for the new regulations in Spring 2024, preceded by a six month implementation period. Given the anticipated seismic shifts in approach however, contracting authorities would benefit from starting their preparations early – it’s never too soon.
At Deloitte we have been following developments since publication of the green paper in December 2020 and have a cross-firm working group looking at how we can help public sector organisations to prepare. Through the work of this group, we have pulled together four actions that contracting authorities can take now to start getting ready while waiting for final details.
Identify your team
Identify who in the organisation are going to be your ‘go-to people’ to monitor developments, collate information as it is released, and manage effective implementation of the changes. Give them the responsibility to be the central point of coordination, planning and distribution of information.
Once identified, the team can follow progress of the legislation (Procurement Bill), tap in to on-line guidance and training being offered by Cabinet Office Transforming Public Procurement - GOV.UK and attend some of the many webinars and recordings already available.
Review your contracts
How complete and up to date is your contract register, and which contracts are likely to be most impacted by the changes, such as outsourced procurement providers or digital procurement systems? Once identified, start engaging with the suppliers and planning together what needs to be done.
What about your pipeline of commercial activity, is it suitably comprehensive, and up to date? Increased transparency is going to be a major theme of the legislation and so it’s worth reinforcing the capture of pipelines and commercial workplans now. This will also help guide how and when you engage with supplier groups on the impact of the upcoming changes and which procurements will likely fall under the new regulations.
Get ready for the flexible procedure
Whilst open procedures and frameworks will continue to satisfy much of the future procurement needs of organisations, we’re excited about the prospect of using a ‘Competitive Flexible Procedure’ to support innovation and to drive value for money in more complex projects. It’s not yet clear how far that flexibility will be allowed to go but it will certainly be more than we have today.
As the introduction of this flexibility marks a major shift in public procurement practice, it makes sense to look at international best practice procedures and consider how these could inform the development of those you might want to use in future. The UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement is a great example of best practices and forms the basis of many national procurement systems.
Alongside looking at procedures, it’s important to review category sourcing plans and identify those areas of spend best suited to more flexible and negotiation-based approaches. These procedures are not a panacea but can be very effective for certain categories.
At the heart of the Bill is the opportunity to foster more dialogue and negotiation between buyers and suppliers. Procurement teams across public organisations have, for many years, been limited in their opportunity to flex their negotiation skills – unlike their private sector counterparts – so now is the time to review training plans to increase knowledge, understanding and skill.
At the same time, it will also be important for contracting authorities to start developing internal governance arrangements to ensure that their buyers have the appropriate support and clarity to operate and negotiate effectively.
Based on the information coming out of Westminster one thing is clear: while the final details are still being thrashed out, the timeline for implementation will still be tight. It is therefore important that organisations act now to get ready, even while there is uncertainty. Don’t wait for the final details to act.
Whatever those final details are, we believe that the actions outlined above will set organisations on the right path to success. Build the team and give them support to implement necessary changes. Review your contracts and be clear about what to focus on. Consider your procedures and reflect on where more flexible approaches will be most appropriate. Develop negotiation skills across your procurement teams and make sure the wider organisation is ready to engage, guide and support the change in approach.
For more resources and guidance see the CIPS UK Public Procurement page.
