The government’s requirement that the Clink Charity must bid to keep operating its one remaining prison reform restaurant exposes systemic failures in the procurement process, according to a sector expert.
Stephen Bubb, executive director of the Gradel Institute of Charity, said the Clink restaurant’s situation “highlights the failures of the government’s procurement system, which disadvantages third sector organisations”.
The Clink Charity, which trains prisoners in catering, is preparing to bid to the Ministry of Justice to continue running its HMP Brixton restaurant after closing three other food outlets in prisons across England and Wales, most recently at HMP Styal, which closed its doors in July.
Writing in a blog, Bubb said the possibility the Clink Charity might not win a contract to continue running its Brixton restaurant was “shocking and deeply troubling” and showed an “urgent need for ministers to overhaul the procurement process”.
“Charities like the Clink have shown, time and again, that they can deliver results where the state has struggled,” he said.
“However, the current public sector procurement programme actively stacks the decks against charities, with a system designed in ways that makes it almost impossible for smaller organisations, however successful, to compete with large private providers.
“It’s time for ministers to intervene and save the Clink. But they must also go further and radically reform the procurement system to empower charities to do more such innovative work in cutting reoffending.”
Contract loss would be devastating, says charity
On the Brixton restaurant, Clink Charity chief executive Donna-Marie Edmonds, said: “It is really that flagship part of the charity. It's the showcase of our mission and values in one setting.
“And so, if we lost that, though the charity would continue because we have other projects and we would pivot, it would be utterly devastating to our core mission; to why we were set up in the first place
“We will do everything we possibly can to retain our wonderful, life-changing restaurant at Brixton and work in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, as we have done so positively for the 11 years Brixton has been operational. We are determined to continue that partnership into the future.”
Brixton MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy has also voiced concern about the Clink restaurant, saying its closure would be “a huge loss to the local community”.
“I therefore hope that the Clink’s bid to renew its tender will be given full and fair consideration, so that this vital initiative can continue its work at HMP Brixton,” she wrote in a letter last week to former justice secretary Shabana Mahmood.
David Lammy, who has since replaced Mahmood as justice secretary, once visited the Brixton restaurant and said: “You only need to spend a few minutes talking to the people involved with the Clink to realise the difference that it makes.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The Clink Charity is contracted to provide a valuable service in rehabilitating offenders and we thank them for their work.
“As with all commercial partners and in line with government policy and public procurement regulations, contracts must be re-tendered when they come to an end to help ensure best value for money.”
In 2017, the Clink Charity won the Overall Award for Excellence at that year’s Charity Awards.
