Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:42 pm on 23 February 2021.
Thank you. I entirely agree with that analysis, and the point about key workers, I think, is very well made, and it helps address one of the questions we have: what is the foundational economy? It's a clunky phrase; it's not a terribly elegant political concept. But I think people can see now who key workers are, and how valuable they are, when the chips are down especially, and how they have been neglected. And I think they symbolise, really, the everyday economy that we are trying to harness through this approach.
The point I think on the size of contracts is a really important one, and I think there is a job of work for both parts here, both for those letting the contracts—Government—and for the private sector in upskilling and being able to take advantage of them. And in that, there is some really good work being done by Wynne Construction in Bodelwyddan who have been recognised many times in the industry for the work they've done in developing their own supply chain, and helping smaller firms to be able to get those larger contracts. So, there's definitely a skills issue, and there's partly the nature, particularly in construction, of the size of many Welsh firms, that they simply don't have the back-office functions to be able to do bid writing when competing against much larger multinationals who have teams who know how to get around the scoring system, shall I say.
So, there's definitely a job of helping the private sector to become savvier and to pool their resources for common good, but there's also a job of work for the procurement professionals themselves. And this is an agenda we've been working on for some time, and it's something the First Minister has been championing about raising the status of procurement professionals, moving them from the back room to the board room, in Professor Kevin Morgan's elegant phrase, and giving them the skills and the space to be able to develop contracts that local companies stand a better chance of getting. Because, often, it is the easier solution to come up with one large contract, which is easier to manage, than a whole patchwork of smaller contracts that would help smaller firms, but are a nightmare for an overstretched local authority. So, there's no easy answer to that, but it's something we're hoping to address as part of our reform programme for the profession.