Equalities and Procurement Survey 2008

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA), the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Society of Procurement Officers in local government (SOPO) conducted several pieces of research in order to understand better how local authorities procure services, works and goods, throughout the different stages of the procurement process. This was done in part to understand more fully how local authorities are taking account of their legal obligations under the public sector equality duties and also to identify what, if any, further legislation and/or guidance and support might be needed for authorities in this respect.

The research consisted of three strands:

• case studies of ten local authorities in England, consisting of interviews with a corporate procurement officer, an equalities officer and procurement officers in two departments;
• a survey of equalities departments in all local authorities in England, to which 201 responded (52 per cent); and
• a survey of procurement departments in all local authorities in England, to which 120 responded (31 per cent).

The research findings will be used to inform EHRC/IDeA/LGA/SOPO thinking on future equalities policy developments, particularly in light of the recent Equality Bill, and inform the development of any future EHRC or IDeA guidance on meeting the public sector equality duties in procurement.

Some of the main findings are summarised below.

• The survey showed that between 70 per cent and 90 per cent (depending on the equality duty) of procurement officers felt that they were fairly or very confident about incorporating equality considerations into procurement exercises (compared with between 56 per cent and 80 per cent of equalities officers).
• Almost all respondents to the equalities survey (98 per cent) thought that their authority had made progress towards incorporating equality considerations into procurement over the previous three years, with a quarter saying ‘a lot’ of progress had been made. The two main factors behind these improvements were thought to be the public sector equality duties (87 per cent) and the requirements of the Equality Standard for local government (80 per cent).
• The pre-qualification questionnaire phase was felt by most of the case studies to be an effective stage at which to embed equalities and one which gave authorities a great deal of confidence. More than four-fifths of procurement survey respondents (85 per cent) reported that they used standard equalities pre-qualification questions, and that they were generally used for all or most contracts (72 per cent - 80 per cent depending on the type of contract).
• Around three-fifths of procurement officers (59 per cent) said they included specific equalities perfomance conditions in at least some of their service contracts (17 per cent did for most or all contracts), and more than three-quarters (78 per cent) said that they found framing appropriate conditions for service contracts either not very easy or not at all easy.
• Monitoring the equalities aspects of contracts was the part of the process that was least often implemented and where staff felt least confident  Just over a third of procurement survey respondents (37 per cent) indicated that equalities aspects of contracts were monitored.
• Staff interviewed generally expressed a need for a single guidance document from all relevant parties. This was borne out by procurement survey respondents, almost two-thirds of whom (63 per cent) indicated that a single authoritative set of guidance in one place would help them to better incorporate equalities into procurement.

Equalities and procurement research - summary (PDF, 4 pages, 53KB)

Equalities and procurement research - case study report.pdf (PDF, 47 pages, 287KB)

Equalities and procurement research - equalities officer survey (PDF, 12 pages, 180KB)

Equalities and procurement research - procurement officer survey (PDF, 19 pages, 225KB)

Date: June 2009

Contact: stephen.richards@lga.gov.uk

Telephone: 020 7664 3256