A third of civil servants unsure they will buy from SMBs

One-third of civil servants doubt whether their department will buy more services from SMBs, despite government guidelines to do so.

The finding comes from a survey of 929 civil servants, conducted by technology industry trade body techUK, which represents around 500 small and medium businesses, as well as large enterprises.

It flies in the face of a Tory election pledge to increase SMB procurement from 25 per cent to 33 per cent of the new government's overall spend, as Whitehall tries to reduce its reliance on large outsourcing contracts.

The survey also found that only 19 per cent of departments believe they have access to a wide pool of suppliers, despite initiatives such as cloud procurement framework G-Cloud, designed to open up contracts to smaller companies.

"Government has a vital role as a purchaser to support the growth of small businesses and the wider digital economy," said TechUK CEO Julian David. "Creating a level playing field is critical to delivering more value for the taxpayer."

"[Cabinet Office] minister [Matthew] Hancock has already demonstrated a commitment to digital and we look forward to working with him and the Government Digital Service (GDS) to build on the successes of the last five years to help develop a civil service that is more open, innovative and collaborative," he added.

The research comes after the Cabinet Office claimed the government exceeded its target to spend 25 per cent of its outlay on SMBs back in February.

In fact, direct spending fell year-on-year, while indirect spending typically money filtering down to SMBs through deals with large suppliers accounted for 15.8 per cent of the 26 per cent total.

Culture change

However, civil servants did tell techUK they see delivering IT as their main mission, at a time when the GDS is turning more and more public services digital.

But they doubt whether they have the right skills and culture within their departments to enable that digital transformation, with only 20 per cent saying their division has the skills to manage suppliers.

For 71 per cent of respondents, internal culture was one of the biggest barriers to this, while just 18 per cent said there is sufficient pre-procurement engagement with potential contractors.

TechUK believes a better IT-savvy culture is necessary to turning government into a smarter buyer, adding that using digital technology could help deliver public services for less.

"These results show that there is a greater need for better engagement with industry, better information and more innovation in order to truly transform our public services," David said. "Civil servants' lack of confidence is demonstrated in the focus on getting the best out of existing technologies and approaches rather than seeking to embrace new and disruptive technologies from a range of suppliers."