Myth or Reality: Public Sector’s Growing Appetite to Procure from the Third Sector?

Purchasing from the third sector can generate important benefits for local authorities, third sector organizations and wider society. Accordingly, policy documents increasingly include third sector organizations in public procurement strategies. Against this background, this article analyses how third sector organizations have fared in public procurement in a local council in the UK that has a reputation for socially responsible public procurement. The findings show the importance of continuously monitoring public spending on procurement and highlight the need for further research on the involvement of third sector organizations in public sector procurement.

This article addresses an important area for public administration, namely how to achieve social value und social benefits in public procurement. More specifically, this article focuses on the inclusion of third sector organizations in public procurement. Departing from a brief overview over the benefits of procuring from third sector organizations, this article shows that the successful inclusion of third sector organizations needs to be accompanied by continuous monitoring of their share in public sector spend and points to the need for key performance indicators to continuously monitor third sector spending.