What does good procurement of public services look like, and what is the role of central government within that?

Background

Further building our evidence and understanding on which public services, delivered at which level of government, deliver greatest public value and what we can learn from different policy approaches taken across the UK.

Next steps

The lead contacts are: Lesley Smith, Senior Principal Research Officer, Analysis, Research and Co-ordination Unit, Analysis and Data Directorate: Lesley.Smith@levellingup.gov.uk and David Hughes, Head of the Chief Scientific Adviser’s office: psChiefScientificAdviser@levellingup.gov.uk.

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

DLUHC Areas of research interest GOVUK

Related UKRI funded projects

  • Optimising Outcomes from Procurement and Partnering for Covid-19 and Beyond: Lessons from the Crisis

    Public procurement is firmly in the spotlight in the Covid-19 crisis. Local authorities (LAs) spend around £100bn (or 47% of their total budget) annually on procurement (IoG,2018). In the Covid-19 crisis, it is cru...

    Funded by: COVID

    Lead research organisation: University of Stirling

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project investigates the role of central government in procurement of public services and examines how local authorities are using procurement to address the challenges posed by Covid-19.

  • The governance of multi-sector public service delivery networks.

    The use of market-inspired instruments for steering public service delivery has become ubiquitous across developed economies and yet the experience with contracting for complex services suggests that we are still in the ...

    Funded by: FLF

    Lead research organisation: University of Oxford

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on alternative governance and contracting practices for coordinating service provision, but does not directly address the role of central government in procurement of public services.

  • Development of the Firesouls platform - an online, closed bid Social Value auction

    Firesouls aims to provide all UK government organisations with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) auction platform that generates new resources for local communities. It does this by applying the Social Value Act to governme...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: FIRESOULS LIMITED

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project proposes an online auction platform for government procurement that aims to generate resources for local communities, but does not specifically address the role of central government in procurement of public services.

  • Building a Real-time Model of the UK Public Sector Procurement Industry

    Transforming UK public procurement is a major government priority. New initiatives (outlined in a recent Green Paper) place procurement-transformation at the heart of post-COVID-19 economic recovery. Additionally, Januar...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: STOTLE LTD.

  • De Montfort University And Association for Public Service Excellence

    To develop practical tools and guides to be able to offer specialist services to, and advocacy for, councils addressing the operational challenges of reduced public spending....

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY HIGHER EDUCATION CORPORATION

  • Creating value for money in Public Procurement Framework Agreements

    Market Dojo has an existing e-auction product already successfully launched into the wider eprocurement marketplace. The Company has recognised an opportunity to evolve the functionality in order to broaden its appeal be...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: MARKET DOJO LIMITED

  • Improving Project Delivery (Project X)

    This research project is a collaboration between academia, industry and the non-ministerial department responsible for the oversight and effective delivery of major projects and programmes in government, the Infrastructu...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Sussex

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on improving project delivery within the government, which directly relates to the question about good procurement of public services and the role of central government.

  • An Urgent Review of Single Source Procurement During the Pandemic: Recommendations for Best Practice and Reform

    Public procurement has played a vital role in the COVID-19 response with over 1 billion items of equipment sourced across the UK. However, procurement has not been subject to rigorous analysis. Ordinarily, contracts must...

    Funded by: COVID

    Lead research organisation: University of Nottingham

  • Centre for Market and Public Organisation to Centre for Evidence-based Public Services

    The Centre addresses research questions covering the provision of public services - education, healthcare and welfare provision, and public policy more broadly. It takes an interdisciplinary approach and its focus is str...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Bristol

Similar ARIs from other organisations

Delivery of major government projects How can we improve the delivery and performance of government transformation and service delivery projects? Cabinet Office, 2019
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Public services What are likely to be the future delivery models for public services and how can government and society best prepare to capitalise on the opportunities presented by these? Cabinet Office, 2019
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