The government will tender for a single partner to potentially provide all government grant-giving to the voluntary sector.

According to an announcement on its procurement pipeline earlier this month, the Crown Commercial Service, “intends to put in place a pan government framework agreement for use by UK public sector bodies for the provision of grant design, delivery and support services”.

The government specification calls for a single partner to provide the “full range of services required to design and deliver grant programmes for voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations”.

This could include production of support materials, design of application forms, marketing programmes, assessing awards, and monitoring progress.

The Cabinet Office, which is supporting the process, has provided little detail about what the agreement will involve, except to say that it will be available, but not compulsory, for all central government grant-giving.

The decision to tender for a standardised grant-giving system follows shortly after the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs select committee criticised patronage and partisan behaviour in government grant-giving which allowed over £40m of public money to go to Kids Company.

Andrew O’Brien, head of policy and engagement at the Charity Finance Group, said that a single organisation delivering government grant-giving could potentially be a good thing, depending on which organisation wins the contract.

“If it was someone like the Big Lottery Fund that would be good news,” he said. “If it was Serco or G4S, it probably wouldn’t be.”