Public Procurement and Property

2024 – A year in review with the Public Procurement Group (PPG)

December 12, 2024 by Teigan Kelly No Comments | Category Procurement news, Scottish Procurement

As 2024 draws to a close, we take a look back at what has been achieved over the last year in Public Procurement in Scotland. We asked members of the Public Procurement Group (PPG) to summarise their sector’s 2024 achievements.

You can watch the video below, or read the transcript at the bottom of the page.

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Video Transcript

Nick:

As we near the end of 2024, I wanted to take a look back over what has been another remarkable year for public sector procurement across Scotland.

And I’m delighted to be joined by my colleagues from the Public Procurement Group, who will also be sharing some of the key highlights and achievements from their respective sectors.

Now, whilst it’s impossible to cover everything, I’d like to spotlight a few standout moments that deserve special recognition from 2024.

In April we published the Annual report on procurement activity in Scotland for 21-22, which highlights how we performed against our Procurement Strategy, how we delivered procurement policy and capability throughout the Scottish public sector.

These figures are fantastic. They show that the £16 billion of public procurement spend, we generated £13.8 billion of economic activity,  provided 130,000 full-time equivalent jobs and £7.5 billion to Scottish GDP.

So, this report really does showcase the power of procurement and a big thank you to all of you as Heads of Procurement for publishing your annual procurement reports for 22-23 along with your procurement strategies, all of which are a great read.

April also marked ‘one-year’ since the launch of the Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland, which provides a clear vision and focused direction for the Scottish public procurement community to align to.

It’s been great to see public bodies taking significant strides in embedding the strategy within their own governance arrangements, and we’re seeing some fantastic examples of how the strategy is being embedded and used to drive real outcomes right across the public sector in Scotland.

Then in June, the Economy and Fair Work Committee concluded their post-legislative scrutiny of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act from 2014. I’d like to thank all those who supported the inquiry – either through submitting evidence, attending Committee sessions or helping to respond to the recommendations.

I’m sure I can continue to count on your support of all sectors as we implement the actions in our response to the Committee.

And then in October, we held our 19^th annual Scottish Procurement conference, which explored ‘The Transformative Potential of Technology, AI and Innovation in Procurement’. It was a great event, and we received excellent feedback. There was lots of engagement and networking opportunities so thanks to everyone who came along and joined us on the day – and be sure to keep a look out for next year’s date!

But that’s enough from me. Let’s hear from my colleagues from the Public Procurement Group.

Gordon:

Hi everybody, it’s Gordon Beattie, Director of National Procurement.

I’d just like to say thank you very much for everybody’s hard work during 2024. A lot was achieved and I was delighted with all the outcomes from that.

We’ve got a £1.5 billion of contract spend under our national contracts and working together, we were able to maintain those prices, achieve £34 million worth of savings and £20 million of cost avoidance. So thank you very much for everybody’s effort in that.

We were in the procurement for a health event early in spring, and this is an early shout out for the event in the spring of this year coming, 2nd of April. Please put that in your diaries and I hope to see you along then.

We did a big bit of work this year on our NHS Scotland procurement strategy, co-commissioned, worked on by all the health boards, and we were able to deliver that this year, and we’ve launched that in Procurex in October there.

So, that’s something we’re going to be working on into, delivering that into 2025. At Procurex I was also delighted that my colleague Paul Hornby was able to get his lifetime achievement award. And there’s a number of our senior staff who are moving into retirement this year. So all the very best for that for the future.

So, looking ahead to the challenges in 2025, they’re all there for us. And I’m sure we’ll work together and deliver for the people of Scotland and our patients.

So it just leaves me to see all the very best for the festive period. And a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when it comes.

Angus:

Well, 2024 was another great year for procurement in the higher and further education sector. We’ve been working with the Heads of Procurement to develop the year’s face to face training programme, which has been very successful, with every course being full.

We’ve seen increased collaborative spend and in some cases exceeding, the pre-Covid levels. And we’ve also been increasing the amount of collaboration cross sector with other centres of expertise across joint frameworks.

Responsible procurement wise. We’ve completed over 250 deep dive assessments now of our suppliers, supply chains and institutional procurement teams and their internal stakeholders. From ICT and estates, for example, in developing climate action plans for the supply chains and the sectors generally seeing procurement as being the solution to the economic challenges facing the sector with reduced funding, reduced overseas students, etc.

So, it’s great to see that continued investment in procurement and the sector. So, overall, a really great 2024 for procurement in the sector.

Julie:

Hi, so it’s fair to say that 2024 has been one of the most challenging years that we’ve faced in the Scottish public sector. We’ve seen massive political change. We’ve seen conflict across the world, which affects our supply chains.

But despite all of these things, our local government colleagues that are procurement teams continue to deliver. We see them delivering savings, increased community benefits. We see them increasing the uptake of the real living wage, which is so important. And even more important that we see a real focus on environmental sustainability.

Here at Scotland Excel, we’ve been continually evolving to support our local government colleagues. Our £2 billion portfolio now delivers £15 million of savings, a further £5 million from our National Savings Team.

We continue to increase uptake of the real living wage. We now have 89% of our suppliers paying the real living wage, and 76% of our suppliers are SMEs.

This has been by design. We’re really passionate about making sure that our supply chains are fit for purpose, so we’ve worked really hard to achieve that and it’s fair to say that Scotland Excel and our local government colleagues are well placed to face the challenges of 2025.

Denis:

Over the course of 2024, we’ve seen some great achievements in procurement nationally and across the central government sector in Scotland, demonstrating leadership, innovation and a real commitment to engagement and collaboration.

Back in April, we saw the publication of the SME and Third Sector Action Plan, which strengthens our commitment to small and medium sized enterprises and third sector organisations.

Our aim is to foster closer ties between public procurement and smaller businesses and people in these groups to be able to compete for public contracts effectively, which in turn will unlock economic and social value across Scotland.

SMEs in particular, can often bring agility and flexibility that allows them to introduce innovative solutions faster than larger organisations. And over the next two years, this plan will help drive collaboration and engagement with those wanting to work with the public sector.

The Scottish Government have also recently published a useful engagement guide to support businesses who want to engage with public sector procurement, as well as outlining how to find and bid for public sector contracts. It also signposts to a range of more in-depth training and guidance to support this. If you’re interested, you’ll be able to access this guide from our Supplier Journey website.

The launch of the Management Information Scotland platform marks another milestone in improving procurement efficiency. This innovative platform has been life for a few months now, and it’s designed to support data driven procurement decisions. We’ve seen a steady uptake already from across the public sector, who are now using it to take full advantage of the enhanced data collection, reporting and analysis it provides to allow procurement professionals to make informed decisions.

At a sectoral level, e have also delivered the Procurement and Commercial Improvement Programme, developing and delivering a targeted question set with stakeholders across 38 organisations, an assessment of their commercial capability. Feedback so far from sectors has been hugely positive. With next steps now being developed for an action plan. I think these achievements, amongst others, will showcase Scotland’s commitment to providing impactful outcomes for businesses, communities and the public sector alike.

I’m sure this progress will provide a strong foundation for continued improvement in the years ahead.

Nick:

If you’ve been following our vlogs, blogs and social media throughout the year, you will know that this is just a quick look back at the incredible work that the procurement community has delivered in 2024.

I’m really looking forward to continuing our collaboration in the year ahead and building on the significant progress we’ve made across so many areas.

Together, as a community, we have the power to make a meaningful impact to people’s lives across Scotland. So as we head into the holiday season, I wish you all a restful break and I look forward to reconnecting with all of you in the New year.

Tags: Public Procurement Group, Scottish Procurement, vlog

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