Engage: How to implement the University of Birmingham’s research into social care micro-enterprises

In July 2015, the University of Birmingham released a report ‘Micro-Enterprises: Small enough to care?’ The report summarised the findings of a two year evaluation of micro-enterprises in social care in England. It concluded that SME’s were found to be more dynamic and personalised than larger organisations and one of the headline recommendations was that, “commissioners should develop different approaches to enable micro-enterprises to join preferred provider lists”.

The role of local government is changing. Commissioning services effectively has never been more important and yet many commissioning practices still favour larger providers despite evidence (and experience) telling us that smaller providers often offer more tailored care, better quality, more innovation and flexibility, plus greater value for money. And if local authorities are to become true commissioning organisations isn’t it right that they seek to support local people and small, local businesses?

If we agree that the above is correct, then this leads us onto the first step of implementing the University of Birmingham’s research – open framework contracts. Using an open framework where new providers can enter the framework to deliver services at any time can only have positive effects for the council, the end user, and the local economy. Importantly, open framework contracts allow new and small providers access to council spend that is not available to them under old-fashioned restricted contracts.

The next logical step is then for local authorities to encourage SMEs to access these open framework contracts. Authorities should be competing for the best possible supply and not solely relying on historical providers. Many of our local authority partners are now exploring different ways of doing this, and in its most basic form this may simply be a case of them publishing information regularly about why SMEs should supply the council, the business opportunity available to them (including spend levels) and clearly signpost how they apply to join.

But even if a local authority follows the above, most local authorities still don’t get the most from their smaller providers. Why? The University of Birmingham has said “…few micro-enterprises were receiving referrals from the local authority and some felt that commissioners favoured larger and more well-known care providers.”

This is exactly our experience and seems to be down to two key reasons. Firstly, in an attempt to be completely equitable, many authorities treat all providers as equals when making commissioning decisions which doesn’t allow small providers an opportunity to demonstrate that they are better placed to deliver certain care services. Secondly many commissioning practices disadvantage smaller providers for various reasons, from not being able to perpetually ‘man the phone’ to simply having less contact with social workers to build their reputation.

Public contract regulations allow commissioners to use past performance in decision making, an area which surely needs further attention and one which can allow smaller providers to demonstrate their ability to outperform their larger counterparts in some circumstances. Indeed if the aim is for commissioners to arrange care packages tailored to the needs of individuals then it’s essential that smaller providers who are more agile and innovative are engaged to deliver these services. Most authorities use a small handful of large providers to deliver generic care packages and although there is without question room for large providers in the market, they aren’t always the best option.

Quite rightly public expectations are higher than ever before with regards to quality in social care and it is clear that we aren’t using the right mix of providers to deliver it. Closed framework contracts and out of date commissioning practices are hindering efforts to deliver a wide choice of personalised and diverse care services and it is time to look at new approaches.

If micro-enterprises are the best source of good quality and personalised care, let’s use them.

About the Author

Chris Wilson is Managing Director of Matrix SPS, a technology-based procurement solution company, formed to personalise public services, by putting users at the centre of the buying process whilst helping organisations meet the challenges of today.

For more information on Matrix SPS visit: http://www.matrix-sps.com/