Harnessing innovation across the public sector: 2. Opportunities in the procurement act

The Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre worked with law firm Mills & Reeve LLP to create the Procuring innovation playbook – busting myths, providing guidance and outlining the opportunities that arise from the Procurement Act 2023.

Opening up valuable public sector contracts to SMEs in order to harness innovation, agility and specialist solutions is a long-standing goal in public procurement. But traditional processes and frameworks can seem insurmountable to those selling valuable innovation in how the sector delivers services to citizens.

The Procurement Act newly in force, however, brings opportunities for both public sector, the large suppliers and those important SMEs. Are there any myths we can knock down and advice we can give to both sides of the procurement process to help drive innovation and transformation under the Act?

The UKA Live Podcast invited Rikesh Shah, Head of the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre, Jenny Beresford-Jones, Senior Legal Advisor, for Mills & Reeve LLP and Shailee Howard, Partner at Mills & Reeve LLP to tell us about their new Procuring innovation playbook.

• What are the main public procurement myths than can stop us from harnessing innovation?
• How do we switch to an innovation mindset when undertaking public sector procurement? Should we focus on desired outcomes rather than products?
• How important is engagement – both internally with colleagues in different professions and externally with the market?
• How can we simplify the complexity - and burden - of public procurement for innovative SMEs and start-ups?
• Are there different procurement routes that can be incorporated into the overall programme? And what role does the Central Digital Platform play?

 

Coming up next: a deep dive into two key resources to help you unlock innovation in public procurement:

• A Practical Guide to Pre-Market Engagement - created by IPEC with procurement specialists Gardiner & Theobald
• Westminster’s journey with IPEC – The council joined last year’s Cohort to explore how they could harness procurement to procure and deliver an innovative solution to help improve air quality from the numerous commercial cooking operations in its area.  

 

Further info: 

• Procuring innovation playbook: https://www.ipec.org.uk/resource/procuring-innovation-playbook/
• Sentiment Analysis 2025 questionnaire: https://ortuser.co.uk/ipec-survey
• Sentiment Analysis 2024 findings: https://www.ipec.org.uk/news/sentiment-analysis2/
• Pre market engagement guide: https://www.ipec.org.uk/resource/a-practical-guide-to-pre-market-engagement/