Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd has said it’s "just tough" and the nature of competitive tendering, that social enterprise Central Surrey Health lost out on a £450m NHS contract to Virgin-owned private health provider Assura Medical Ltd.
Speaking at the Guardian Social Enterprise Conference today, Hurd said that just because “one high-profile” organisation lost a big contract, it was not cause to dismiss the whole social-enterprise movement.
The decision by NHS Surrey to award preferred-bidder status for a £450m contract to Assura Medical over local social enterprise Central Surrey Health, deeply angered the social enterprise sector.
At the time, Social Enterprise UK said it jeopardised the government’s mutuals agenda and warned that some of the financial criteria used in contracts created an unequal playing field as social enterprises didn’t have the same financial backing as private providers.
Hurd, today, did admit that there was not a level playing field yet for charities and social enterprises tendering for public sector contracts, but said new initiatives such as Big Society Capital and the Open Public Services White Paper would help in creating this.
Hurd also emphasised that the government was striving to create a level playing field for fairer competition, not to favour civil society bidders:
“The word ‘compete’ is very important,” he said. “You have to compete to win contracts. It isn’t guaranteed. There will be no special favours or quotas for certain types of organisations.”
He said, however, that the government would work together with the sector to help it become more competitive and said government had made it clear to commissioners that it wants charities and social enterprises to play a bigger role in public services.
Commenting on Central Surrey Health, Hurd said that in a commissioning world there was no guarantee of a win:
“The commissioning process was transparent,” he said. “The social enterprise just didn’t win. Maybe that’s just tough.”
Later in the conference, Hurd said that the government’s push for more payment-by-results contracts would benefit the sector.
“It ought to work for the sector,” he said. “Particularly in difficult areas, as the sector is better at getting results.”
