Enhancing the role of commercial staff

3.27  The role of commercial staff needs to change. The procurement model whereby commercial staff add value through running effective bidding processes and then ensuring the contractors meet the expectations in that contract does not work for more complex services. Instead, commercial staff need to focus on improving the quality of services and reducing costs over the life of the contract. This starts at the scoping stage.

3.28  Changing the role of commercial staff is also likely to have other advantages. It will make the job more interesting, improving staff engagement. It will make the role more influential, attracting a higher calibre of staff. And it will expose staff to more commercial situations, allowing them to develop the experience they need and be promoted to more senior positions.

3.29  Government recognises that it needs to deploy its staff in a different way. The Cabinet Office believes commercial capability is too focused on the bidding stage and should be redeployed on planning and contract management (Figure 13 overleaf). They also believe this would align deployment closer to the private sector. For example, the Defence Equipment and Support organisation estimates that under 10% of its commercial staff are involved in contract management, well below the 50% it believes is required. The Department of Health has redeployed some commercial staff to focus purely on contract management support.

3.30  Planning on how to redeploy staff is at an early stage. Departments are currently considering:

•  The size of their resource gap

It is not clear how many commercial specialists government needs. The reviews identified a gap between the numbers and capability of staff allocated to contracts and the level needed. Government is currently researching best practice, based on evidence from across industry, in order to determine the scale and nature of resources that are needed to successfully manage contracts.

•  The skills that they need

It is not clear that the current commercial workforce has the skills needed for the new role. The Cabinet Office and departments are working out the skills that they have and that they need. The Cabinet Office has begun to create a central database of commercial skills. While preliminary indications suggest a large skills gap may exist, work is still at an early stage.