Representatives from 21 civil society organisations attended a roundtable hosted by the Cabinet Office yesterday to get an update on what the government is doing to make it easier for the sector to deliver public services.

Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude, minister for civil society Nick Hurd, and the recently-installed Crown Representative for the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, Michael O’Toole (pictured), all attended the event.

Civil society groups attending included umbrella bodies such as NCVO, Acevo and the Small Charities Coalition, along with service-delivery charities such as Action Acton, Catch 22 and the Alzheimer’s Society.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office told civilsociety.co.uk that the government representatives outlined the recent initiatives undertaken to improve access to contracts for voluntary sector organisations.  These include:

• Publishing all contracts worth more than £10,000 online, on the Contractfinder website
• Publishing all departmental business plans online so that potential delivery agencies can continually scan the contracting horizon to see what’s coming up
• Abolishing the complex and bureaucratic pre-qualification questionnaires for all contracts worth less than £100,000
• Introducing mystery shopping, whereby if civil society organisations report problems participating in the tendering process, the government will send people to work with the contracting authority to try to break down the barriers.
• Setting up a Commissioning Academy to support commissioning professionals

As well as offering the update, the roundtable was “very much a listening exercise” for the government representatives, said the spokesman.  There was a lengthy question and answer session where those attending had an opportunity to say what else they thought could be done to improve the environment for civil society groups.

Michael O’Toole added: “There is huge scope for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises to be more involved in running public services, and I am helping to make it easier for them to tender and win public contracts.

“My guiding light in this work is my firm conviction, based on years of experience, that in many cases VCSEs are simply the best supplier for government to buy from."

Yesterday's roundtable coincided with the announcement that the government will run a series of practical workshops next spring to help charities bid for contracts.