On 25th September 2025, WRC hosted another instalment of our Critical Conversations series. The event, entitled 'Dissecting Procurement and Commissioning Practices: Campaigning for a Better Way,' was led by special guest Veronica Daly, Chief Procurement and Contracts Officer at King’s College London. The session unpacked why current public sector procurement and commissioning processes are failing people-centred services—especially the women’s sector—and what alternatives could better serve our communities. 

Unpicking the System

Veronica traced the historical and political roots of outsourcing. Since the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, government policy has steadily shifted responsibility from local authorities as providers of services to commissioners and marketers. The assumption was that competition would drive efficiency, reduce costs, and improve quality.

Yet, more than three decades later, the evidence tells a different story.

• Unmet need is rising.
• Quality is inconsistent.
• Private profit has grown while outcomes for women and children have worsened.

From adult social care to children’s services, outsourcing has entrenched a market logic that prioritises manufactured compliance over care, and cost-cutting over community. 

A Regime Built on Red Tape

Participants heard how procurement frameworks evolved from local competitive tendering in the 1980s, through EU procurement directives, to the Procurement Act 2023. While the Act (which took effect in February 2025) claims to simplify procedures and open doors for SMEs and VCSEs, Veronica questioned whether these reforms would meaningfully change a system still designed for market efficiency rather than social justice.

Even the so-called “Light Touch Regime” for care and social services, she noted, remains highly bureaucratic and competitive, failing to recognise that such services are rooted in trust, relationship, and lived expertise, not market competition. 

“Exempt for Everything—Except Care”

A striking revelation was the long list of contracts exempt from competition: legal, financial, and broadcasting services, as well as utilities like water and energy. 

As WRC’s CEO Vivienne Hayes pointed out, if water can be exempt, why not women’s services?

Women’s organisations face layers of bureaucracy to secure public funding, even as their work saves lives and fills critical gaps in statutory provision. “It’s unnecessary, burdensome, and exclusionary,” Vivienne argued. “Our sector delivers essential services, yet is expected to survive on scraps of time-limited, and competitive contracts.” 

Resistance, Remedies, and Reform

The discussion turned to what could be done:

• Challenge unfair procurement decisions. Veronica encouraged organisations to use existing mechanisms—like the new Procurement Review Unit—to flag poor practice and lack of transparency.
• Push for grants, not contracts. Grants enable flexibility, trust, and community-led solutions. Qualities stripped away by procurement culture.
• Campaign for exemption. WRC, alongside allies such as Locality and the VCSE Panel, continues to press government for people-centred services to be excluded from commercial contracting altogether.

As one participant noted, “Procurement is treated like an unchangeable rulebook, but it’s a policy choice. It can be rewritten.” 

From Frustration to Collective Action

Contributors shared lived examples of exclusion and inequity, from women’s organisations losing out to generic providers, to opaque decisions on multi-million-pound Home Office contracts. The fear of challenging commissioners was a recurring theme.

Veronica was clear: “Knowing your rights and naming unfairness is not troublemaking, it’s professionalism and accountability.”

The conversation ended with calls for template challenge letters, collective monitoring of local authority practice, and legal support for organisations seeking redress. 

Towards a Feminist Funding Future

The event closed with renewed determination to campaign for a system that values care over manufactured compliance. As participants reflected, outsourcing has failed to deliver quality or equality. It’s time to reimagine funding as a feminist, fair, and community-led process.

Key Takeaways

• Outsourcing has not improved outcomes; it has commodified care.
• The women’s sector remains structurally disadvantaged within procurement systems.
• Many essential services could legally be exempt from competition.
• Grants—not contracts—are the best mechanism for people-centred work.
• Collective advocacy is essential: procurement is political.

WRC’s Critical Conversations series continues to bring together activists, experts, and women’s sector leaders to challenge systems that harm our work and communities.

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