Public Procurement and Property

Plan for the Future: Meet the Scottish Government Workstreams

December 8, 2022 by Melissa Reilly No Comments | Category Construction, Plan for the Future, Property

As a reminder, what is the Plan for the Future?

The Plan for the Future programme was created by the Public Procurement Group, along with key stakeholder groups. The ‘Plan for the Future’ is made up of some cross sectorial workstreams, which are being delivered by working groups that have representatives from across the sectors to provide a breadth of ideas, suggestions and representation. There are also Scottish Government led projects which will engage with Scottish Government and public, private and third sector stakeholders as required to drive change.

The initial blog on the Plan for the Future gives more of an outline of the programme and the workstreams that are underway.

The Plan for the Future currently has three workstreams being delivered by the Scottish Government. (Transcript available at the bottom of page.)

1. Maximising the Impact of Procurement including an evidence-based approach

This workstream is aiming to maximise the impact of public procurement priorities, including exploring how far we can go in making our priorities a condition of contract. This will be achieved through:

• setting out clear national direction of what is possible and expected through public procurement spend
• taking steps to improve the evidence we gather to track and target improvement
• driving forward a range of targeted projects to increase our influence and to improve local practice.

Current focus has been on embedding current policy alongside supporting organisations in the use of policy guidance and tools. There has been independent benchmarking and research to assess the impact of sustainable procurement policies in Scotland and in other parts of the UK, identifying any improvement which will be published in the coming month. Research on the views and experiences of third sector organisations and new private sector businesses in relation to public procurement in Scotland has also been published.

Moving forward, there will be continuing support to raise awareness of how organisations can use policy guidance, tools and support to maximising the impact of procurement. There will be ongoing local support to help embed sustainable procurement policy & practice as well as continued engagement with UK Government on the UK Procurement Bill.

2. The transformation of Property data

The transformation of Property data project includes validation of specific data fields for relevant properties. This is primarily to assist with the move from the national e-PIMS register to a new database tool called inSite. In addition to this work, recommendations on further use of Horizon will be made, alongside embedded ways of working for updates to the property data in the appropriate systems. Data sharing agreements will be developed and put in place, to facilitate collaboration with other Scottish Government teams.

3. The Client Guide to Construction Projects Digitisation workstream

This Project aims to improve the user journey through the Client Guide. The guidance was noted, in feedback, as being exemplary. The feedback also recognised that the presentation of the guidance and navigation through it on the internet should be more user friendly and intuitive. This workstream will develop and make improvements to that journey.

There have been questions asked about the Plan for the Future and the workstreams that make up the programme. The most common questions have been added to the Plan for the Future FAQ, to allow quick and easy access to them. Have a look and see if your question has already been answered.

For further information on public procurement in Scotland please visit www.gov.scot/procurement

Please email enquiries to scottishprocurement@gov.scot

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Single speaker Transcript

The Plan for the Future currently has three workstreams being delivered by the Scottish Government.

Maximising the Impact of Procurement including an evidence based approach

The transformation of Property data

And, The Client Guide to Construction Projects Digitisation workstream

Find out more about these workstreams in our latest blog post

Blogs.gov.scot/public-procurement

Tags: eCommerce, Plan for the Future, property

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