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What is it?

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/0e092271-756d-4344-aeb1-2670ce665c1f/Ellipse_2_(2).svg" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/0e092271-756d-4344-aeb1-2670ce665c1f/Ellipse_2_(2).svg" width="40px" /> Joint procurement refers to multiple London boroughs collaborating on a specific procurement. This could include early-stage market testing and engagement at the beginning of a procurement, or jointly tendering or contracting with a supplier, during the execution of a procurement.

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'Joint procurement' in this section refers to a broad range of activities throughout the execution phase a single procurement. This is because we encourage cross-borough collaboration beyond simply jointly contracting or entering into shared services agreements: boroughs can realise significant commercial value and service innovation by coming together and working collaboratively on many of the features involved in the execution of a procurement.

This is how it is described in the EU Directives - Rec (71) Directive 2014/24:

'Joint procurement can take many different forms, ranging from coordinated procurement through the preparation of common technical specifications for works, supplies or services that will be procured by a number of contracting authorities, each conducting a separate procurement procedure, to situations where the contracting authorities concerned jointly conduct one procurement procedure either by acting together or by entrusting one contracting authority with the management of the procurement procedure on behalf of all contracting authorities'.

Why does it matter?

In previous sections, we have outlined how collaborating on strategic planning, knowledge sharing, market engagement and design can deliver greater commercial outcomes and innovation for London boroughs. The benefits of jointly executing on a procurement opportunity at the later stage are similar: if done properly, joint procurement can eliminate knowledge asymmetries, reduce transaction costs, leverage economies of scale, and develop shared solutions to common challenges.

When should you use it?

We encourage the use of common procurement wherever it is possible, and wherever it would deliver a commercial or service benefit.

However, joint procurement can also pose significant cultural, commercial and governance challenges. In general, joint procurement will be more straightforward when:

• There is enough time for boroughs involved to shape and refine their requirements, and translate these into a joint agreement.
• Boroughs are transparent with their internal timelines and governance structures, and there is broad alignment between parties involved.
• There is a strong record of collaboration and shared decision making between boroughs, including joint budgeting.
• Boroughs have fairly similar service requirements, including number and composition of users, and core strategic aims.

How should you do it?

'Joint procurement' covers a broad range of activities: as we have outlined previously, every action throughout the lifecycle of a specific procurement can include some level of collaboration. Earlier in this toolkit (for instance, in Preparation and Strategy), we outlined some of the upstream collaboration opportunities for boroughs. Even at the Execution phase, there are a number of different partnership options, including:

• Advertising the tender opportunity and engaging the market. If two or more boroughs have similar requirements, there is an opportunity to engage the market together. Boroughs should consider how they can leverage their respective brands, networks and geographies to create strong engagement processes and supplier pipelines (look at our Market Engagement Guide for more information).
• Evaluating suppliers. Even in the absence of a formal joint contracting agreement, boroughs can even provide advice or share best practice during the evaluation stage of a tender. We recommend mentioning that you will do this in the evaluation criteria in the original notice.
• Executing commercial agreement. This is what is usually referred to as 'joint procurement', in the strict sense of the term: boroughs entering into a single contractual agreement with a supplier, or using the same single framework agreement. We discuss below some models for doing this.

The key message, therefore, is that there are multiple opportunities to collaborate throughout a procurement, and boroughs should work together, even in absence of a shared contractual agreement.

Below, we have outlined three 'design decisions' that must be taken by boroughs when collaborating on a procurement: