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The health and social care sector is perennially subject to proposals for reform, revamp, overhaul, and rethink. This boundless appetite for change in the sector is explained by four key factors:

Well, why measure anything? There is an oft-quoted phrase from Peter Drucker’s book “The Practice of Management” which is “what gets measured gets managed”. The quote has a number of variants; “if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it”, “you cannot manage, what you cannot measure” and so on. The point though is valid regardless of how it is stated.

As she departed office in 2019, one of Theresa May’s last acts as prime minister was to legislate an amendment to the Climate Change Act 2008 which committed to reducing the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’ (a 100% reduction against 1990 levels) by 2050. Widely praised, the move meant the UK became the first major economy to set such a target, and reflected the ascendancy of climate action in public discourse, with the views of spokespeople as diverse as then-governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and activist groups such as Extinction Rebellion at least partially converging.

The policy note provides guidance to public sector authorities on implementing the National Procurement Policy Statement, which will require authorities to consider national strategic priorities when procuring, with these priorities heavily focused around social value and national and local outcomes.

Many organisations view the tendering process as a ‘necessary evil’ that enables them to win contracts and deliver services on behalf of public sector organisations and private companies. In practice, it is a highly valuable and insightful process that enables a competitive marketplace to be maintained where UK suppliers have the opportunity to expand their portfolio through a fair and transparent process.

The UK government has published new guidance outlining how public bodies and suppliers can better work together to deliver value for money and improved outcomes when procuring services.