Examination of Witnesses (Questions 56
- 59)
TUESDAY 12 JUNE 2007
DR NEIL
BENTLEY, MR
DAVE PRENTIS,
MR WILL
WERRY AND
MS RACHAEL
MASKELL
Q56 Chairman: It is a great
pleasure to welcome our witnesses this afternoon. We have Dr Neil
Bentley from the CBI, Dave Prentis from Unison, Will Werry from
the Commissioning Joint Committee and Rachael Maskell from Amicus.
Thank you very much to all of you for coming. You know that the
Committee is inquiring into the question of commissioning services
from third sector organisations. We have taken some evidence on
this already but we thought it would be very good to get some
input from all of you this afternoon. I do not know if any or
all of you would like to say anything briefly by way of introduction
or if we can just get straight into the questioning. Does anyone
particularly want to say anything?
Dr Bentley: I would not mind doing
a bit of introduction, simply because we did not submit any evidence,
for which apologies, just to give you a quick steer. I will be
very brief.
Mr Prentis: I would like to do
the same.
Q57 Chairman: Okay.
Ms Maskell: I would definitely
like to, yes.
Q58 Chairman: If you could
be fairly brief because I suspect a lot of it will come out in
questioning.
Dr Bentley: I just want to set
out three main points where the CBI is coming from on this agenda,
what we would like to see and what we think the key challenges
are. To start off with, why business has an interest in this agenda,
is really because we believe our members have a triple stake in
public service reform. That is business as users of public services,
as funders of public services and increasingly as providers of
public services themselves. There has been major investment in
public services over the past decade but there are changes in
citizens' expectations for public services, how they are being
delivered and increasing expectations for personalised services
and on-demand services. We think what we need to see are continually
improving services that offer value for money and are constantly
innovating. What we would like to see is real partnership between
the public sector, private sector and the voluntary sector working
together to deliver improvements in public services. We would
like to see the public sector as a commissioner of services going
forward, not just a deliverer of services, and that is working
with public sector partners and private sector partners and those
in the voluntary sector. Underpinning this, we believe we need
good market management; that is excellent public procurement skills,
excellent commissioning skills, excellent delivery skills and
project management skills underpinned by what we call competitive
neutrality which is establishment of a level playing field between
the public, private and voluntary sectors. Some of the key challenges
we think are out there which really do need to be addressed, the
beginning, the middle and the end, are better public procurement
skills and commissioning. We want to see all providers of public
services championing user needs, thinking about tackling social
equity issues by the public sector Commissioner choosing the best
provider to deliver services, involving staff in the reform agenda
and the changes which are going on in public services as a result
of this, focusing on quality of services, not just cost, embracing
new forms of public/private partnerships (we are seeing now public/private/voluntary
partnerships developing) and, as I say, treating all providers
fairly through competitive neutrality. These are some of the issues
on our mind. I am very happy to be here today. Thank you for the
invitation and I look forward to the discussion.
Q59 Chairman: Thank you very
much. Thank you for being so succinct. Dave, do you want to follow
that?
Mr Prentis: Okay, Chairman. I
will be succinct as well. What I would like to circulate round
are three documents that we have prepared in the last two or three
months. They are False Economy? The Cost of Contracting and
Workforce Insecurity in the Voluntary Sector and also the
report that we have undertaken The Third Sector Provision of
Local Government and Health Services which we think are directly
relevant to the work that you are doing and also a short statement
on our support for the voluntary sector as it is at the moment.[1]
[2]
We think these are directly relevant to your work. What I will
not do, which I could have done, is do a long harangue about the
direction of public service reform and the use of market competition.
1 Unison, False Economy? The costs of contracting
and workforce insecurity in the voluntary sector, May 2007 Back
2
Unison, Third Sector Provision of Local Government and Health
Services, May 2007 Back
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