Scope of the inquiry
5. Our previous work on different aspects of public
service reform has led us to a particular interest in one aspect
of the developing relationship between government and the third
sector—the role of the sector in delivering public services.
Although there is a long history of both not-for-profit organisations
and the State providing services to the public, the last
decade has been notable for the increased emphasis on the delivery
of public services by third sector organisations—a
distinction we explain at paragraph 13. In particular, there has
been an emphasis on commissioning services from the sector,
as opposed to simply procuring services or providing funding to
be used by organisations at their discretion.
6. The Government's push to do this is part of a
wider policy agenda of contestability, or opening up markets for
public services to new suppliers from the private and third sectors
to create public service industries. However, the desire to involve
the third sector in service design and delivery also reflects
a belief that third sector organisations have distinctive strengths
which, harnessed correctly, have the potential to contribute to
the "transformation" of service delivery.
7. In this inquiry we set out to scrutinise the desirability
and achievability of the Government's vision for third sector
involvement in public service delivery. That vision is complex.
Its central plank, according to the Office of the Third Sector,
is that the sector deserves parity of treatment with other sectors:
At the heart of this action plan is the principle
that where services are commissioned and procured by government,
there must be a level playing field for all providers, regardless
of sector.[4]
At the same time, the Government has argued that
Third Sector Organisations (TSOs) bring many distinctive qualities
to the table which can provide better outcomes for service users,
and that therefore measures should be taken to encourage and enable
more TSOs to take on service delivery. We have set out to consider
these questions from the perspective of service users and of citizens.
Our central question was whether the sector should be involved
in service delivery to a greater, similar or lesser extent than
it is now—and how the ideal position could be achieved.
We address this over the course of the report:
- Chapter 2 provides a brief
background to the current position, looking at the changing relationship
over time between government and the third sector;
- Chapter 3 sets out the Government's vision of
the third sector's role in public services delivery—broadly,
that it has distinctive qualities which may help "transform"
public services;
- Chapter 4 focuses on one aspect of the Government's
vision, by concentrating on the proposed scale of change which
is being suggested;
- Chapter 5 attempts to assess the claim that third
sector organisations can and do offer distinctive ways of providing
services with better outcomes for service users;
- Chapter 6 then looks at the barriers which may
be preventing the Government from getting the best out of the
third sector as a possible provider of services, and asks whether
it is ever possible to achieve a level playing field;
- Chapter 7 sets out some constructive suggestions
for improving commissioning; and
- Chapter 8 concludes our survey by examining some
of the risks associated with involving the third sector in service
delivery—whether to service users, to the Government, to
the sector, or to citizens more widely.
8. This inquiry is the first we have undertaken since
taking on responsibility for scrutinising third sector policy.
We have benefited enormously from the support of the National
Audit Office, itself still finding its feet in this developing
policy area. We are particularly grateful to Andrew Denney, whose
expertise has been invaluable and who has made a significant time
commitment to our inquiry.
9. We are also grateful to all of our witnesses,
and all those who submitted written evidence for our consideration.
We received more than 50 written responses to our call for evidence,
while other organisations were represented at a seminar we held
in May 2007. Subsequently we heard oral evidence from:
- Front line third sector organisations,
large and small;
- Third sector representative bodies, operating
nationally and locally;
- The Office of the Third Sector and some of its
sponsored bodies/contractors;
- Wider stakeholders, including trade unions, the
Commissioning Joint Committee and the Confederation of British
Industry (CBI); and
- The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Minister
for the Third Sector.
10. We have also been able to draw on earlier work
relevant to this inquiry. We and our predecessor Committees have
been scrutinising the delivery of public services for some time,
most recently in our inquiry Public Services: Putting People First,
on which we have produced two reports and will shortly produce
a third.[5] Many of the
issues around commissioning services from the third sector are
familiar to us from an inquiry into Choice, Voice and Public Services
in 2004-5, which considered questions around the principle and
practice of opening up the delivery of public services beyond
public sector providers.[6]
However, we have avoided duplicating the work of those past inquiries,
and we concentrate on issues specific to the commissioning of
services from the third sector.
11. Public service delivery is only one aspect of
the wider contribution the third sector makes to society. We have
already taken evidence on other third sector-specific subjects
such as the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit and
the rules applying to political campaigning by charities, and
we intend to maintain an ongoing programme of work relating to
the sector.
1 
