When you woke up in the morning, did you leap out of bed, and excitedly exclaim “I get to procure something today!”? 

Probably not. 

Public procurement, and that specialised sub-sector, construction public procurement, is important, and complicated, and easy to get wrong. And unless you’re a procurement geek like me, you’re probably not excited about procuring construction works or services. 

Procurement is a means to an end.  The end is a new school, homes for people in need, a hospital to heal the sick, and that’s what people focus on.   

Also, procuring in the public sector means a whole range of considerations must be taken into account.  You can’t just go on Amazon, type in “one roundabout” and then sort a list of roundabouts to get the cheapest first, and get it delivered tomorrow (or today by 10pm if it costs over £20).  You have to consider questions such as: 

• Do I want to make sure that the works are carried out by someone with the right experience? 

• How do I make sure that the price I get at tender is the price I pay at the end? 

• Do I want to try to ensure that the money I spend helps the local area? 

• Can I use this procurement to support local apprentices and getting unemployed people in my area back into work? 

• How do I make sure that I meet my legal obligations under the Social Value Act? 

The good news is that there is a proliferation of choice open to you. And the bad news is that there is a proliferation of choice open to you.  

There are over 2,000 active public sector construction frameworks, some are little more than a “post box” with no active support or management. That’s where NACF frameworks come in they are managed and demonstrably deliver improved value and enable excellent project outcomes. 

 How do you navigate the procurement landscape to get to the right supplier? 

The Construction Playbook explains that a successful framework should be based around principles that align objectives, success measures, targets and incentives to enable joint work on improving value and reducing risk.   

At the National Association of Construction Frameworks we work with our members and their suppliers to align objectives across frameworks – this way, the sector gets a consistent direction of what is expected to them, allowing them to focus their efforts in delivering what we ask across a whole range of expectations, which cover areas such as using endorsed forms of contract like NEC, incorporation of agreed community benefits such as job creation, engaging the local supply chain, energy reduction and recycling your money locally. 

As the NACF’s national sustainability lead I can say with confidence that there is a great deal of work across NACF members to ensure that commitments are made and maintained, and learning is shared.  I have been championing the Carbon Reduction Code for the Built Environment and as a result you can see both NACF members and our suppliers joining the lists of approved signatories to the code on the CRCBE website at crcbe.org. 

And in my day job as Performance & Improvement Manager working for YORhub (one of the NACF members), I’ve been supported by other members, such as the North Wales Construction Partnership, in seeing what questions are being asked by other frameworks to allow me to align ours to match.  The ability to align and build on each other’s best practice is only possible through the NACF, which is why we’re mentioned in the Construction Playbook. 

We’re creating efficiency along with leading best practice in this area at the NACF, and we’d love to work with anyone in the public sector looking to answer the question of procuring the right supplier for your project, because we recognise how tricky this is – and we’re here to help you.