Procurement professionals across Wales are facing a period of adjustment as the Procurement Act 2023 begins to bed in, bringing with it fresh demands on skills, capacity and ways of working.
The Act, which came into force in February, is reshaping how public bodies and suppliers interact. For buyers, as well as adapting to new rules and procedures the Act also means managing a broader policy agenda around sustainability, social value, ethics, and economic regeneration.
Speaking on the Business News Wales Government & Not for Profit podcast, Grahame Steed, director for public policy and research at BiP Solutions, said procurement teams are under pressure to do more with limited resources, and that different skills were also coming into play.
“Where procurement has been very much driven by the process and the procedure and the rules, it is now moving to a place where those things are obviously still important, but there's much more around the softer skills of commercial understanding and negotiation,” he said.
“We are moving much more now into contract management and supplier management as well. So I think there is a bit of a shift in terms of what's required of procurement professionals.”
Richard Dooner, programme manager at the Welsh Local Government Association, agreed that behaviour and culture matter as much as compliance.
He described the Act as “more evolution than revolution”, adding that unless skills and ways of working change, “there’s a risk that we’ll just be doing what we did before under the new rules”.
Richard emphasised that councils want to work with suppliers to achieve outcomes for communities, and that requires the right people, systems and training.
Tomos Lewis, partner at Blake Morgan LLP, noted that new procedures introduced by the Act, such as competitive flexible procurement, have taken time to embed as authorities build confidence. He said pre-market engagement is already being used more actively, giving suppliers earlier visibility of opportunities and shaping procurements from the outset.
He added that differences between the UK-wide Act and Welsh legislation, including the Well-being of Future Generations Act and the forthcoming Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act, add further complexity.
“It is important for contracting authorities to get it right and for suppliers to understand that in Wales there may be things which are slightly different,” he said.
“It can be confusing and difficult but I think moving forward there will be a Welsh way of procuring which can only be a good thing.”
BiP Solutions is hosting Procurex Wales in partnership with Welsh Government on November 4 at the Utilita Arena in Cardiff. The event will feature skills development zones.
Training now needs to go beyond the traditional focus on compliance and procedures, said Grahame.
“In the past, skills sessions may have been about core procurement skills,” he said. “Now we are trying to cover more of the softer skills and those other areas that are just becoming increasingly important.”
Listen to the Government & Not for Profit podcast here
Procurex Wales will be held on November 4 2025 at the Utilita Arena, Cardiff. For more details and to register visit: https://procurexwales.co.uk/
