"Buying social justice" through procurement: An examination of the use of public procurement for advancing employment equality in UK construction

通过采购“购买社会正义”：英国建筑业利用公共采购促进就业平等的考察

• 批准号: ES/V014226/1
• 负责人: Tessa Wright
• 金额: $ 46.72万
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV014226%2F1
• 关键词: Buying; social; justice; through; procurement

Around a third of all public spending is on procuring goods, works and services from the private sector. Therefore the idea of social procurement, or using public spending power to achieve additional social ends through the contracting process, is attractive to policymakers. This could include measures such as requiring a construction firm building a publicly-funded housing project to offer apprenticeships or jobs to local unemployed people. Although the idea of "buying social justice" through public procurement is encouraged by legislation, there is little research on the extent of its adoption or effectiveness, particularly for promoting equality. Therefore those involved in using public procurement to achieve additional equality objectives have little material on which to develop evidence-based policy and practice.This research will provide the first evidence of how social procurement is being adopted by public authorities specifically to advance equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in employment, including groups protected under equality law and socio-economic inequality. It will focus on the UK construction and infrastructure sector, as a key industry for post-coronavirus economic recovery and growth, contributing £413bn to GDP annually, employing 9% of the workforce. The sector is facing skills shortages, exacerbated by Brexit, which has focused attention on filling labour gaps through the recruitment of a more diverse workforce. Construction has long been a predominantly white, male industry, with a workforce of only 13% women and 6% black and minority ethnic (BME) workers, despite numerous EDI initiatives. Our previous research has shown that demanding action to improve workforce diversity through public procurement can be an effective mechanism for change, as used in the construction of London's Olympic Park where numbers of women and BME workers increased.The legal frameworks that enable public procurement to achieve 'social value' from procurement have developed differently across the UK in recent years, with stronger obligations in Scotland and Wales than in England. The research will use this opportunity to undertake a comparative analysis of the impact of the differing legislative frameworks on policy and practice on social procurement. A main objective of the research is to have an impact on practice in the use of social procurement to advance employment equality, through identifying examples of good practice and barriers to its uptake. The research will develop recommendations and a toolkit for use by those involved in social procurement for equality ends - whether as public commissioners/buyers, procurement or equality practitioners, contractors, representatives of employees or civil society - who have been consulted on the design of the project and will be involved in the development of the research and its outputs through a project advisory board. The project uses mixed methods, including a survey and case studies. A survey of public bodies in England, Wales and Scotland - local authorities, higher education institutions and housing associations - will establish the extent of policy and practice on the use of social procurement to achieve employment equality objectives. All three groups spend large amounts of public money on construction projects, and are subject to legal requirements that they should consider the social value and equality implications of such spending. Case studies will be produced to highlight good practice in the area of social procurement from the three types of public bodies in England, Wales and Scotland, as well as a national infrastructure project and two innovative transport authorities. Recommendations and a practitioner toolkit on equality and procurement will be developed with project partners, to be disseminated widely, through a practitioner conference, commissioner networks and industry communication channels including journal articles and social media.

约三分之一的公共支出用于从私营部门采购商品、工程和服务。因此，社会采购的想法，即利用公共支出能力通过合同进程实现额外的社会目的，对政策制定者具有吸引力。这可能包括一些措施，比如要求一家建筑公司建设一个由公共资金资助的住房项目，为当地失业人员提供学徒或工作机会。虽然立法鼓励通过公共采购“购买社会正义”的想法，但关于其采纳程度或有效性的研究很少，特别是在促进平等方面。因此，那些参与利用公共采购实现更多平等目标的人几乎没有可供制定循证政策和做法的材料。这项研究将提供第一批证据，说明公共当局如何采用社会采购，特别是为了促进就业中的平等、多样性和包容性，包括受平等法和社会经济不平等保护的群体。它将专注于英国的建筑和基础设施行业，作为后冠状病毒时代经济复苏和增长的关键行业，每年为GDP贡献4130亿GB，雇用9%的劳动力。该行业正面临技能短缺，英国退欧加剧了这一问题，英国退欧将注意力集中在通过招聘更多元化的劳动力来填补劳动力缺口上。长期以来，建筑业一直是一个以白人、男性为主的行业，尽管有许多EDI倡议，但劳动力中只有13%是女性，6%是黑人和少数民族(BME)工人。我们之前的研究表明，要求通过公共采购来改善劳动力多样性的行动可能是一种有效的变革机制，就像伦敦奥林匹克公园的建设中所使用的那样，那里的女性和BME工人的数量增加了。近年来，使公共采购通过采购实现“社会价值”的法律框架在英国各地发展得不同，苏格兰和威尔士的义务比英格兰更强。研究将利用这一机会对不同的法律框架对社会采购的政策和实践的影响进行比较分析。这项研究的一个主要目的是通过查明良好做法的例子和采用良好做法的障碍，对利用社会采购促进就业平等的做法产生影响。这项研究将制定建议和工具包，供参与社会采购以实现平等目的的人--无论是作为公共专员/采购员、采购或平等从业者、承包商、雇员代表还是民间社会--使用，他们已就项目的设计征求了意见，并将通过项目咨询委员会参与研究的发展及其成果。该项目使用了混合的方法，包括调查和案例研究。对英格兰、威尔士和苏格兰的公共机构--地方当局、高等教育机构和住房协会--的调查将确定利用社会采购实现就业平等目标的政策和做法的程度。这三个群体都在建设项目上花费了大量的公共资金，并受到法律要求，即他们应该考虑此类支出的社会价值和平等影响。将进行案例研究，突出英格兰、威尔士和苏格兰三类公共机构以及一个国家基础设施项目和两个创新的交通管理机构在社会采购领域的良好做法。将与项目伙伴一起编制关于平等和采购的建议和从业人员工具包，通过从业人员会议、专员网络和行业交流渠道，包括期刊文章和社交媒体，广泛传播。