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

大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，或利用公共消费能力通过订约过程实现额外的社会目标，对决策者很有吸引力。这可能包括要求建筑公司建造公共资助的住房项目，为当地失业人员提供学徒或工作机会等措施。虽然立法鼓励通过公共采购“购买社会正义”的想法，但很少有关于其采用程度或有效性的研究，特别是在促进平等方面。因此，那些参与使用公共采购，以实现额外的平等目标的材料很少，以制定基于证据的政策和做法，这项研究将提供第一个证据，社会采购是如何被公共当局采用，特别是促进就业的平等，多样性和包容性（EDI），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4，130亿英镑，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样化的劳动力来填补劳动力缺口上。建筑业长期以来一直是一个以白色男性为主的行业，尽管有许多EDI倡议，但只有13%的妇女和6%的黑人和少数民族（BME）工人。我们之前的研究表明，通过公共采购提高劳动力多样性的要求行动可以是一种有效的变革机制，正如伦敦奥林匹克公园的建设所使用的那样，其中女性和BME工人的数量增加了。近年来，使公共采购能够从采购中实现“社会价值”的法律的框架在英国各地的发展各不相同，在苏格兰和威尔士的义务比在英格兰更重。研究将利用这一机会，对不同立法框架对社会采购政策和做法的影响进行比较分析。研究的一个主要目标是通过确定良好做法的实例和采用这种做法的障碍，对利用社会采购促进就业平等的做法产生影响。这项研究将提出建议和一个工具包，供那些参与促进平等的社会采购的人使用-无论是作为公共专员/购买者、采购或平等从业人员、承包商、雇员代表还是民间社会-他们在项目设计方面得到了咨询，并将通过项目咨询委员会参与研究及其产出的发展。该项目采用混合方法，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-进行的一项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。所有这三个群体都在建设项目上花费大量公共资金，并且受到法律的要求，他们应该考虑这种支出的社会价值和平等影响。将进行案例研究，以突出英格兰、威尔士和苏格兰三类公共机构在社会采购领域的良好做法，以及一个国家基础设施项目和两个创新交通管理局。将与项目合作伙伴一起制定关于平等和采购的建议和从业人员工具包，并通过从业人员会议、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。

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.