ForeGRound
The Formal-relational Government Contracting Roundtable (ForeGRound) is an international group of academics, policymakers and practitioners interested in understanding the potential and challenges to a formal relational contracting approach in the public sector.
Formal-relational contracting is an emerging approach to governing complex partnerships. It leverages shared goals and principles, alongside governance procedures, to ensure that the formal contract complements the informal relationships between parties, allowing them to work together productively and adapt amidst uncertainty. While it has been pioneered in the private sector, we believe it has the potential to address serious and persistent challenges facing public sector contracting. However, more research is needed to understand whether and where it is effective, and how it can be implemented.
The Government Outcomes Lab acts as the secretariat for ForeGRound. We organised the inaugural session in Oxford in September 2023, and provide ongoing support to communication and future meetings of the group.
If you would like to find out more about the group, including how you can join future sessions, please contact Michael Gibson at michael.gibson@bsg.ox.ac.uk.
Upcoming meetings
More details to come...
Past meetings
Formal-relational Contracting Symposium
The second meeting of ForeGRound took place in Roskilde from the 11 to 13 August 2023, hosted by Ole Helby Petersen, Lena Brogaard and their team. We began by rowing and sailing a viking ship up Roskilde Fjord, putting our metaphors about rowing and steering into practice!
This was followed by two days of presentation and discussion. First, we had a research day. Researchers presented a range of papers examining aspects of formal-relational contracting in the public sector, allowing for in-depth exploration of the latest research in the field. We then held a series of roundtable discussions, based on short reflection pieces around emerging topics of interest.
On the next day, we held a research-practice exchange day with Danish public servants who have participated in a research programme to better understand the effects of training public managers in formal-relational contracting practices. Matthew Potoski and David Frydlinger delivered keynote lectures on formal-relational contracting. We then heard from some of the public managers who had undertaken the training, explaining how they were seeking to adopt the approach, as well as some of the challenges and benefits they saw.
Symposium on Formal Relational Contracting in the public sector: a practice frontier and research agenda?
On 13 September 2023, we gathered in Oxford for the inaugural meeting of a group of academics and practitioners interested in exploring the potential for a new approach to public contracting. The state increasingly relies on contracted independent provider organisations to provide a wide range of public goods and services, from stationery and landscaping to aircraft carriers and homelessness reduction programmes. However, often (and particular in the case of more complex contracts), these partnerships between government and private provider organisations fail to deliver public value. Recognising this, we sought to explore how bringing focus to both the formal and relational elements of contracting might help to better serve the public interest. Framing our discussion around i) the contract, ii) negotiations and collaboration, and iii) public law and accountability, we explored several key themes, detailed in the attached summary note. These, we hope, will provide the foundation for an ongoing conversation around how a formal relational approach to public sector contracting might lead to better contractual outcomes.
