Michael O'Toole
Michael O'Toole, former head of the third sector bidding consortium, takes on new role managing the relationship between government and the sector
Michael O’Toole, the former chief executive of the third sector bidding consortium 3SC, has been appointed as the government’s ‘crown representative’ for the voluntary sector.
The position is one of several created by the government to manage its relationship with suppliers in different areas.
A statement from the Cabinet Office said the new role would open up more public sector business opportunities for charities and social enterprises and help improve the relationship between government and the sector.
O’Toole, who starts his new job on Monday, said: "I passionately believe that the sector offers a huge contribution to public services delivery, which is still largely untapped. Its passion, innovation and huge voluntary resource can offer government an efficient and effective public services delivery option."
Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, said the appointment showed how serious government was about "enabling the voluntary sector to win more public contracts, and give it the tools it needs to achieve this".
Introducing the crown representative role for a group of large private sector providers in April 2011, Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said the post holders would be responsible for ensuring best value for the government through new competition for public contracts.
"Our priority is to make sure the taxpaying public gets the best possible deal – and one of the ways of doing this is to ensure we’re really using the scale of government to push down prices," he said.
