{"id":5976,"date":"2026-08-05T11:17:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/?p=5976"},"modified":"2026-08-05T11:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:17:51","slug":"care-inspectorates-stage-2-digital-transformation-project-managing-multiple-supplier-arrangements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2026\/08\/05\/care-inspectorates-stage-2-digital-transformation-project-managing-multiple-supplier-arrangements\/","title":{"rendered":"Care Inspectorate\u2019s Stage 2 Digital Transformation project \u2013 managing multiple supplier arrangements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Blog by Niamh Duncan, Independent Assurance Stakeholder Communications Manager in the Scottish Government\u2019s Digital Assurance Office.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Care Inspectorate have been undertaking the second stage of an ambitious digital transformation project since May 2020. Stage 2 of the project builds on the replacement of end of life legacy systems and aims to continue the replacement of applications and simplify their data landscape. The project has taken a user focused approach to ensure frontline staff will be able to access and use the information they need easily. Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/tag\/care-inspectorate\/\">first case studies<\/a> with the project team on the proactive use of independent assurance, governance and communications and engagement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Stage 2 project has received assurance under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.scot\/policies\/digital\/technology-assurance-framework\/\">Technology Assurance Framework<\/a> (TAF) observing the mandatory major digital project reviews as well as requesting bespoke health checks.<\/p>\n<p>The Stage 2 project has worked with multiple suppliers for both technical and specialist services. The project team have been praised by independent reviewers for establishing and embedding a \u2018one team\u2019 approach, demonstrating a high quality of interworking and mutual support, supporting a high level of confidence in delivery. Putting in place arrangements for strong supplier relationships and contract management is a common area of challenge for major digital projects, you can read more in our deep dive on <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2024\/01\/23\/technology-assurance-framework-effective-procurement-and-contract-management\/\">effective procurement and contract management<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Activities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The project team:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>maximised the likelihood of securing the right suppliers by including business representatives as well as technical staff in procurement evaluations, and drawing on support from <a href=\"https:\/\/home.scotland-excel.org.uk\/\">Scotland Excel<\/a><\/li>\n<li>had a clear expectation of suppliers and ensured those expectations were met adequately<\/li>\n<li>separately managed commercial and contractual discussions through monthly meetings and kept day\u2011to\u2011day delivery focused on outcomes rather than contracts<\/li>\n<li>focused on building team culture and ways of working, keeping the core aim of the Care Inspectorate in mind at all times<\/li>\n<li>established the one team approach from the outset, including supplier staff in daily stand up meetings<\/li>\n<li>had weekly temperature checks with the suppliers individually, with one supplier embedded within the core project team<\/li>\n<li>built a hybrid team and made time for in\u2011person working where practical to foster relationships<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Reflections<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The project team found that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a shared mission mindset helped the team navigate times of pressure and difficult changes: the Care Inspectorate\u2019s key mission was passionately role modelled by the SRO and senior leaders which supported the right attitudes across the team<\/li>\n<li>open conversations made it easier to address performance issues and separating delivery from commercial discussions built trust between suppliers and senior leaders<\/li>\n<li>established senior level relationships with suppliers meant challenges, when they arose, were able to be navigated through to a successful outcome<\/li>\n<li>embedding partners reduced \u201cus and them\u201d behaviours, created the environment where everyone knew their roles and responsibilities and allowed the team to gel well<\/li>\n<li>the one team approach built strong working relationships and allowed difficult issues, including staff changes and delivery pressures, to be resolved constructively<\/li>\n<li>prioritising relationships and team culture was key to success through the project phases<\/li>\n<li>separating the commercial\/contractual relationship from the project delivery space supported the focus of the project team<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Find out more<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For more information about this case study contact <a href=\"mailto:DigitalAssurance@gov.scot\">DigitalAssurance@gov.scot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Technology Assurance Framework (TAF) is designed to help prevent digital projects from failing for common reasons, improve delivery and ensure that the lessons learned from previous experience are reflected and embedded in future practice. The Digital Assurance Office are working with organisations to share information which might help others deliver digital projects and we have been publishing our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/tag\/digital-assurance-office\/\">insights and case studies<\/a>\u00a0on our digital blog. If you want to get involved contact us at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:DigitalAssurance@gov.scot\">DigitalAssurance@gov.scot<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other case studies focusing on procurement and contract management include:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2024\/10\/16\/trove-scot-working-with-your-supplier\/\">Trove.scot \u2013 working with your supplier <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2024\/02\/28\/census-2022-contract-management\/\">Census 2022 &#8211; contract management <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2024\/02\/21\/census-2022-procurement\/\">Census 2022 &#8211; procurement <\/a><\/p>\n<p>For further information and signposting to advice and support on project and project management contact the\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:ppm-coe@gov.scot\">Project and Project Management Centre for Expertise<\/a>. The Scottish Government\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.scot\/publications\/scottish-governments-principles-programme-project-management\/\">project and project management principles<\/a>\u00a0are available and apply to any project of any size.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/digitalacademy.gov.scot\/\">Scottish Digital Academy<\/a>\u00a0is the public sector centre of expertise for digital capability and can provide information, advice and guidance on developing digital, data and technology skills to support transformation.<\/p>\n<p>For expert guidance on delivering a digital project visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/digitalsupporthub.service.gov.scot\/s\/people\">the Digital Scotland Service Manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blog by Niamh Duncan, Independent Assurance Stakeholder Communications Manager in the Scottish Government\u2019s Digital Assurance Office. Introduction The Care Inspectorate have been undertaking the second stage of an ambitious digital transformation project since May 2020. Stage 2 of the project builds on the replacement of end of life legacy systems and aims to continue the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[403,6],"tags":[482,22,533],"class_list":["post-5976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-assurance-office","category-digital-scotland","tag-care-inspectorate","tag-digital-transformation","tag-technology-assurance-framework-taf"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Care Inspectorate\u2019s Stage 2 Digital Transformation project \u2013 managing multiple supplier arrangements - Digital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/digital\/2026\/08\/05\/care-inspectorates-stage-2-digital-transformation-project-managing-multiple-supplier-arrangements\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Care Inspectorate\u2019s Stage 2 Digital Transformation project \u2013 managing multiple supplier arrangements - Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Blog by Niamh Duncan, Independent Assurance Stakeholder Communications Manager in the Scottish Government\u2019s Digital Assurance Office. Introduction The Care Inspectorate have been undertaking the second stage of an ambitious digital transformation project since May 2020. 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