Best value: Contractors urged to raise training profile

Contractors in the local authority sector must 'get into the spirit' of new council guidance that makes training and management issues more prominent in the bidding process, warns a specialist in the sector.

The new guidance, Best Value and Procurement: Handling of Workforce Matters in Contracting, gives local councils the power to consider workforce issues such as staff training and management practices when selecting tenders and awarding contracts.

Professor If Price of the Facilities Management Graduate Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, who is an expert in the best value initiative under which the guidance falls, welcomed the changes. He said that if it encouraged investment in training, it would pay dividends in terms of standards of service.

However, he questioned the readiness of some companies to invest money in training to improve standards. 'I am slightly sceptical because we have had some similar initiatives in other sectors and so much always comes back to cost,' he said. 'But it is a step in the right direction.'

Drawing comparisons with the government's training initiative, Investors in People, he said, 'It is essential for contractors to get into the spirit of the idea.' He said people had been willing to get involved with Investors in People – 'and not just for the badge on the wall'.

Norman Rose, director general of the Business Services Association, also applauded the initiative. 'Implemented properly and even-handedly between in-house providers and external contractors, it will enable the client to make realistic decisions,' he said. 'Both cost-effectiveness and commitment to staff must now be built into the equation.'

He said the private sector had nothing to fear from the guidance, saying that top-quality contractors already offered good employment records as well as value for money.

'For the future, those who are not committed to quality cannot expect to get the business,' said Rose. 'Quality service and quality staff relations have always been the prerequisite for successful companies. Now, they will be essential for all those looking to provide outsourced services.'

* More than half of respondents to a British Security Industry Association survey on best value revealed that they did not feel they had been given sufficient guidance on how to pursue a best value approach, and found it difficult to apply best value to security issues.