Evaluability assessment for the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act: summary

In March 2025, the Social Partnership, Employability and Fair Work division (SPEFW, Welsh Government) commissioned the Internal Research Programme (IRP, Welsh Government) to conduct an evaluability assessment of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 (the Act).

The Act fulfils a Programme for Government (2021 to 2026) commitment to place social partnerships on a statutory footing in Wales.

The Act includes a Social Partnership Duty (SPD) on public bodies and Welsh Ministers, which must be reported on annually. Public bodies must seek consensus or compromise with their recognised trade unions (or other staff representatives) when setting well-being objectives and making decisions of a strategic nature about reasonable steps to meet these (under the Well-being of Future Generations Act). Welsh Ministers must consult employer and worker representatives through the SPC when making decisions of a strategic nature about the reasonable steps to meet their well-being objectives.

The Act created the Social Partnership Council (SPC), a tripartite statutory advisory body with worker and employer representatives to provide advice to Welsh Ministers. Also, in the description of the ‘A prosperous Wales’ well-being goal (within the Well-being of Future Generations Act), ‘decent work’ is replaced with ‘fair work’. The Act also places a statutory requirement on contracting authorities to conduct public procurement in a socially responsible manner, including publishing socially responsible procurement objectives and using contract clauses developed.

Research context and aims

Chapter 11 of the Act’s explanatory memorandum notes the intention to report on the Act’s operation and impact. It also suggests an evaluability assessment could be conducted to establish measurable impact, review data sources, and recommend evaluative approaches. Therefore, the findings from this evaluability assessment intend to inform commissioning of a formal evaluation.

This evaluability assessment includes the SPD, SPC and fair work elements of the Act only. Procurement is not included due to internal resource constraints. High-level considerations for evaluating all elements of the Act cohesively are made where possible.

Research aim 1a is to understand the progress of the social partnership and fair work aspects of the Act.  Aim 1b is to refine the SPD, SPC and fair work logic models and theory of change narrative produced in previous IRP research (2023) accordingly. 

Research aim 2 is to understand the availability and quality of primary and secondary data that can evidence the different components in the logic models. Aim 3 is to provide advice and options for evaluation design.

Desk reviews of documentation were conducted. This included documents covering the set up and operation of the SPD, SPC and fair work elements of the Act to update the logic models. Also, reviewing HM Treasury’s Magenta Book and resources from Better Evaluation to identify suitable options for a future evaluation.

A total of 5 workshops with Welsh Government officials were conducted. Of these workshops 3 were to refine the logic models (between 4 and 10 participants). Another further defined logic model outcomes and reflected on the data and information requirements over a half-day of 3 sessions (between 10 and 13 participants). Another discussed practical elements for an evaluation, such as potential uses, timing, budget, and capacity (3 participants; senior leaders).

Considerations

A limitation of the research is that external stakeholders (such as public body representatives and SPC members) were not included in workshops. Therefore, their views about what data and information is held and what is feasible are not reflected.

At the time of writing this report the 2026 Senedd elections were upcoming. A change in government may impact the approach to social partnership, fair work and procurement. The recommended evaluation options produced as part of this evaluability assessment are developed under the context at the time of writing. The extent to which this may need to be revised in any future context is not ascertainable.

The updated theory of change and logic models for the SPD, SPC and fair work can be found in the full report. Logic chains have been described for each logic model, as well as the main points at which the logic models interlink.

The full report outlines how each of the logic model outcomes are defined (what they would look like in practice), and so how they could be measured.

The findings highlight that quantitative data is not collected as part of the Act. As such, measuring processes and outcomes as part of the evaluation would mostly rely on reviewing documents and primary data collection methods. 

Numerous documents were identified for process and outcomes measurement in a future evaluation, including:

• documents published by public bodies, such as SPD reports, reporting about well-being objectives, and corporate plans
• documents held by Welsh Government, such as Welsh Minister’s SPD reports, SPC and subgroup minutes or outputs, information and advice issued by the SPC and use by Welsh Ministers, information issued by Welsh Ministers and use by public bodies, and records relating to resources, training and engagement

Some quantitative data were identified for long-term outcome 5 in the SPD logic model and long-term outcomes 1 and 3 in the fair work logic model. These include the Well-being of Wales national indicators published by Welsh Government. Also, measures held by public bodies such as staff well-being, turnover, productivity and strikes and disciplinaries. However, these would not be possible to attribute to the Act.

It is expected primary data collection would involve Welsh Government officials, SPC and subgroup members, public body representatives, and wider stakeholders.

The findings show an evaluation should cover all elements of the Act (SPD, SPC, fair work and socially responsible public procurement) due to the ways in which they tie together.

In the Act’s explanatory memorandum, the report on the operation and effect of the Act is intended for 5 years post implementation, meaning 5 years after the provisions have come into force. This is flexible, with the findings highlighting this as being the earliest point. There is disparity in implementation timeframes. While the SPD, SPC and fair work began implementation in early 2024, procurement provisions are expected to fully come into force in April 2026. This will affect the time at which outcomes are visible.

At the time of reporting an evaluation budget estimation is not available. Any budget would be split between social partnership and fair work, and procurement, but this may not be even. Resource may also be required for a Welsh Government analyst to manage the contract for the evaluation.

Expected evaluation users included Welsh Government officials, the Senedd and committees, trade unions, SPC members, and the procurement community. 

An evaluation would need to assess the extent to which the Act has contributed to changes in awareness, engagement, understanding and behaviours over time in accordance with what is outlined in the logic models.

For the SPD and fair work, case studies with public bodies were identified as likely the most suitable way to ascertain the outcomes in the logic models. For the SPD, the priority area for an evaluation is the embedded social partnership principles. For fair work, the priority area is the extent to which fair work is referenced in well-being objectives and the steps taken to achieve these objectives involving fair work.

For the SPC, a priority is the impact of the SPC’s advice on social partnership arrangements. This would also involve case studies with public bodies, covering the use of advice given via. the SPC. A priority is also assessing the influence of the added value of having advice jointly developed between worker and employer representatives on specific issues, such as Artificial Intelligence. This would involve a self-contained element, using case studies on topic areas where the SPC may have had a policy influence, depending on the nature of advice given.

Numerous challenges for a future evaluation were identified, described in detail in the full report. To summarise, challenges included that:

• the SPD reports have no deadline for submission or set content
• some public bodies will be more established in their social partnership and fair work journey than others to start with, and then progress will also vary, meaning case studies will need careful sampling
• there have been historic challenges with participation in case study development
• there is some stakeholder expectation around the Act beyond what the Act sets out to do, which may affect expectations of what an evaluation could show
• there are external factors which will affect assessment of processes and outcomes, for example; a change in government post-2026 Senedd elections, cross-over with other legislation, changes in personnel in public bodies, changes in SPC membership every 3 years, low stakeholder capacity, pressures on public sector finances, and trade union attitudes

Approach

The evaluability assessment recommends a mixed-methods process evaluation and a theory-based impact evaluation.

The process evaluation should focus on the activities and outputs in the logic models for all the components of the Act (SPD, SPC, fair work, and socially responsible public procurement).

For the impact evaluation, experimental and quasi-experimental approaches would not be suitable because it will not be possible to compare affected and unaffected groups. Out of the theory-based impact evaluation approaches, a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) inspired approach was assessed to be most suitable for the SPD, SPC and fair work.  A suitable impact evaluation approach for procurement is to be determined by an evaluability assessment.

Timings

An evaluability assessment for the procurement element of the Act could be conducted around late 2026 to early 2027.

A process evaluation of all elements of the Act could start in 2029.

It is recommended that the impact evaluations should take a staggered approach.

A QCA impact evaluation of the SPD, SPC and fair work components in mid to late 2030 would allow sufficient time to incorporate insights from the process evaluation, and for the long-term outcomes to emerge.

For procurement, long-term outcomes (5 years plus) would be anticipated in 2031 based on a 2026 implementation date. Therefore, it is recommended that the procurement element of the impact evaluation could commence in early to mid 2031. 

In identifying the main points where procurement outcomes cross over with the other components of the Act, these can be captured and measured at the phase most appropriate. Then, findings can be combined to create a summative evaluation of the Act’s impact.

Recommendations to support a future evaluation

The full recommendations can be found in the full report.

Recommendation 1

Undertake an evaluability assessment of the procurement element of the Act.

Recommendation 2

At the point of the future evaluation (process stage), make final iterations of the social partnership, fair work and procurement logic models.

Recommendation 3

Documentation outlined in the full report should begin to be collected by SPEFW officials. It should be stored and tracked over time, so that at the point of evaluation it can easily be collated and accessed.

Recommendation 4

SPEFW officials may need to do some outreach and engagement work to collate contacts in public bodies, including changes over time. A future evaluator will need this list of contacts to ascertain who to invite to research activities.

Recommendation 5

At the point of the future evaluation, the evaluator would need to scope the feasibility of public bodies sharing data they hold.

Recommendation 6

Explore the feasibility of recruiting a Welsh Government analyst to manage the contract for the evaluation.

Report author: Findlay, S. and Curless, G.

Views expressed in this report are those of the researchers and not necessarily those of the Welsh Government.

For further information please contact:

Internal Research Programme
Social Research and Information Division
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ

Email: RhYF.IRP@gov.wales

Social research number: 36/2026
Digital ISBN: 978-1-83745-062-6