Public Procurement and Property

Our third Scottish Procurement vlog of 2022 with Nick Ford

November 1, 2022 by Niamh Duncan No Comments | Category Scotland Innovates, Scottish Procurement, vlog

We recently caught up with our Director, Nick Ford to hear his reflections on recent months, highlighting some of the key achievements and successes from across the procurement community.

Looking ahead, Nick also shares some of the things you can look forward to seeing in the near future.

For more on information on what Nick covered:

• Scotland Innovates
• GO Awards Scotland
• The Plan for The Future
• Scottish Procurement Policy Notes (SPPNs)

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Vlog transcript:

Hi all, I’m back today with my third vlog of the year. It’s incredible to think it’s nearing the end of October. What a busy year it has been so far, and we have lots more to look forward to before the end of the year.
I know I speak for the whole Procurement and Property community when I say we have been hard at work supporting Scotland through the current economic challenges.

Our work touches every aspect of life in Scotland, from the buildings we work in, the transport we use, to the support we give our citizens. This year in particular, we’re showing just how far our remit reaches, and how integral we are in running a country that gets the very best impact on every pound it spends.

We’ve been working closely with colleagues across local government to support the settlement of displaced Ukrainian people, a huge undertaking that has required, bold thinking and quick action. My thanks to everyone involved, allowing Scotland to stand up and extend a helping hand to those seeking refuge.

As a government, we are undertaking an emergency budget review to assess the economic pressures of inflation on our public services. Our skills as a profession are so vital now to ensure that even when budgets tighten, sustainable outcomes are still achieved.

Our policy team continues to provide essential support to ensure we consider climate impact and champion Fair Work through our contracts. But we are mindful of the bandwidth across the public bodies and have been evaluating and streamlining our policy work. We must make sure we are balancing our current resources against our bold ambitions for the future.

Last week I attended my first Procurex as Director. I can’t say how fabulous it was to see the place buzzing and to see so many of you in person finally. My thanks to everyone that made such an engaging day happen, and especially to my fellow PPG members and Malcolm Harrison, CEO of CIPS, who joined me for a panel session. It was great to see the audience so engaged with our priorities and asking thoughtful questions about the future.

And of course, that night we had the GO Awards. What a display of excellence across the board. My congratulations go to all the winners and I’m already excited to see the quality of submissions for next year. I am, of course, especially proud to see one of my own teams, our Capability and Contract Management team win a highly commended, well done to all!

Since I became Director, I have again and again seen the wicked problems we face. That is why I am so excited about the launch of Scotland Innovates. Our new supplier led innovation portal. We have created the portal in partnership with NHS NSS and will run the service jointly. Borne out of the common purpose to improve our public services by embracing innovation.

I’m so excited to see our work on the Plan for the Future moving along at pace.  I’m so grateful for the engagement we’ve had so far and I ask that you keep it up! Your input is so valued.

Since my last vlog, we published a policy note with support with support for organisations in drafting the annual report. We want to ensure we’re really understanding procurement’s true impact, evidencing returns on the investment procurement delivers and of course showcasing the amazing work that you all do. These reports contribute to the annual ministerial report. That we will be publishing soon.

Look out for policy notes on Fair Work and on procurement of innovation in the coming weeks, as well as some exciting updates on our construction division on sustainability and retentions.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to keep up to date with all the latest news, and I’ll be back with another vlog in December to reflect on our many achievements of 2022.

Thank you.

Tags: Fair Work, innovation, Public procurement, Scottish Government procurement, Scottish Procurement

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