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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 8d

Really looking forward to chatting with this brilliant panel about how to make sure pay and pensions help attract and keep the high-quality public sector workerforce the government needs

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 8d

Should public sector pay and pensions be reformed?

Join us at #Lab25 at 15:45 to hear from @timleunig.bsky.social @fdagensec.bsky.social @fdaunion.bsky.social @gemmatetlow.bsky.social, Paul Whiteman and @drbenpaxton.bsky.social - Clyde Room, ACC www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/ifg-la...

Reposted by Ben Paxton

Institute for Government @instituteforgovernment.org.uk · 12d

The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government

New report by @njdavies.bsky.social and @drbenpaxton.bsky.social on how public procurement could support delivery of mission-led government, and the key barriers to this.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government | Institute for Government

How can the government remove the barriers to its missions?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Reposted by Ben Paxton

Civil Service World @civilserviceworld.bsky.social · 12d

IfG report says a “bias for the status quo” often prompts government to stick with existing approaches that “guarantee poor performance”, rather than taking a chance on change
www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/...

'Coherence is needed': Government urged to leverage its £400bn procurement bill to aid missions drive

Think tank says better approaches to spending – including backing the civil service to be less risk-averse – can deliver results

www.civilserviceworld.com

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Reposted by Ben Paxton

Stuart Hoddinott @stuarthoddinott.bsky.social · 13d

This interview is so much worse than the headline lets on

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

With huge thanks to @njdavies.bsky.social and other colleagues at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk for collaborating on this work

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government | Institute for Government

How can the government remove the barriers to its missions?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

14. Finally, any new procurement legislation should be focused on providing clarification and standardisation, without adding unnecessary complexity or instability to the relatively new (and widely recognised as very good) Procurement Act, which people are very much still getting to grips with.

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

13. The commercial profession has a strong, cross-gov identity and network – this should be leveraged to foster wider collaboration. The GCF should continue to support the communities of practice that have grown in recent years.

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

(It’s easy to say commercial capability should be maintained, but it will be difficult to do when facing targets for 10% admin budget cuts by 28/29)

12. So GCF and departments should use missions to guide prioritisation on capability

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

11. The Government Commercial Function should develop a long-term strategy for boosting the number of senior commercial specialists within government departments and their ALBs, and establish the expectation that all those managing contracts are commercial specialists

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

The final group of recs are on strengthening procurement capability and data

10. Managing Public Money guidance should be updated to make accounting officers responsible for procurement data, and the new central digital platform should focus on public sector orgs + suppliers being able to use it

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

9. Government should make the most of ‘pull’ mechanisms to promote innovation. This should include Innovate UK's Contracts for Innovation and also Advance Market Commitments that could be used to incentivise development of scalable innovation (low carbon concrete e.g. ⬇️)
www.ukri.org/news/innovat...

Innovate UK invests £3.2 million in concrete decarbonisation

Innovate UK will invest £3.2 million in seven projects to accelerate decarbonisation of the UK concrete industry.

www.ukri.org

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

8. DSIT should be coordinating procurement of innovation, with support from the Cabinet Office. They should be using procurement data to identify opportunities for collaboration, and the new Commercial Innovation Hub should share best practice in buying innovation

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

7. Public sector organisations should have multi-disciplinary teams horizon scanning for contracts due to expire/be renewed, proactively reviewing how technological and/or social innovation could improve outcomes in these areas (this should be easier to do with a better Find a Tender service)

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

6. Cabinet Office/DSIT should publish further guidance setting out best practice in procuring innovation (with legislation changing, and risk aversion widespread, contracting authorities are often uncertain about what should/shouldn’t be done)

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

The 2nd group of recommendations are on better using procurement to bring innovation to the public sector

4. Ministers must back civil servants to procure innovation, even following failure

5. Preliminary market engagement should be a core part of procurement (which it very much isn’t right now)

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

2. A mission-led approach means procurement being more outcomes-focused. This includes earlier market engagement on outcomes rather than highly specified solutions, and KPIs being aligned with those outcomes

3. Publish longer-term 3y pipelines, giving industry sight of upcoming opportunities

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

1. Commercial leads for each mission should work with commercial leaders across gov to proactively and publicly identify new opportunities for the market to support delivery of missions (which would be easier if gov publicly defined a more coherent set out outcomes in relation to the missions…)

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

So how could this change? Lots of recommendations below, split into 3 sections: market shaping, innovation, and capability/data

First up, government is a huge buyer (>£400bn!) and therefore implicitly shapes markets it operates in. The public sector should be much more proactive in how it does this

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

c) A lack of forward planning for innovation
d) Limited commercial input into policy design (partly from a lack of senior commercial capability)
e) The poor (but improving) quality of procurement data, which limits internal strategic oversight and industry insight into contracting opportunities

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

But barriers to making this a reality are:
a) A lack of coherence in the gov's missions - suppliers don’t know how they could support them
b) Pervasive aversion to risk/uncertainty - which often means rolling over contracts + sticking to familiar specs/suppliers, rather than trying new approaches

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

The 4 key ways we think procurement could support a more mission-led approach are by:
1. Proactively shaping public sector markets
2. Procuring new solutions
3. Supporting a focus on challenges or outcomes (rather than highly specified inputs/outputs)
4. Enabling collaboration across government

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

Procurement is massively underrated as an opportunity for improvement, and where a mission-led approach could make a difference.
Our NEW REPORT explores why this change is hard, and how procurement should be used to shape markets + drive innovation🧵
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government | Institute for Government

How can the government remove the barriers to its missions?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Reposted by Ben Paxton

Nick Davies @njdavies.bsky.social · 13d

NEW REPORT: @instituteforgovernment.org.uk finds that confused missions, pervasive risk aversion, poor data quality, insufficient commericial capability, and a failure to focus on outcomes means that govt is failing to make the most of £400bn+ a year it spends on procurement

The role of procurement in delivering mission-led government | Institute for Government

How can the government remove the barriers to its missions?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

More on independent policy reviews - and how they can lead to change (but sometimes don't) - from @jillongovt.bsky.social and me here

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Lessons from past independent policy reviews | Institute for Government

How, when and why are policy reviews used by politicians?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Ben Paxton @drbenpaxton.bsky.social · 13d

But whatever the motivation for making the Child Poverty Taskforce internal, it's not politically straightforward for the government right now. And of course, its chaired by Bridget Philipson, who is currently trying to win over party members - a dynamic that couldn't have been foreseen a year ago

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