Scottish Government

Vision Statement - Background - Mission Statement - Objectives - Benefits - Functions

Vision

"We will contribute benefits to the people of Scotland through the
development of efficient and effective national procurement strategies."

Background

A review of public sector procurement in Scotland, carried out by John McClelland, recommended that procurement be managed over three levels:

• Category A: Nationally procured commodities across all of the public sector.

• Category B: Commodities procured on a sector specific basis - Health (NHS National Procurement), Universities and Colleges (Advanced Procurement Universities & Colleges, APUC), Local Government (Scotland Excel) and Central Government (Central Government Centre of Procurement Expertise, CGCoPE).
• Category C: Commodities procured on a local or regional basis.

In response to these recommendations, national and sectoral 'Centres of Procurement Expertise' (CoEs) have been established to drive collaboration in the public sector.

Procurement Scotland is the organisation tasked with implementing strategies and frameworks for National 'Category A' goods and services on behalf of all Scottish public bodies. Review the 'National Contracts' section to see which commodities this includes.

Procurement Scotland will deliver innovative strategies and supplier relationships that enable public sector organisations in Scotland to access the goods and services they commonly need at market leading prices and terms. This will be done through pursuing opportunities for collaborative procurement, and the implementation of leading practices, whilst promoting the economic and sustainable development of the wider Scottish market place.

• Support development and implementation of national vision for the collaborative procurement of Category A commodities
• Deliver value for money savings in line with national targets, with high levels of compliance to national contracts
• Deliver an effective and efficient procurement service
• Ensure businesses have the opportunity to compete for national contracts based on their capabilities.
• Maximise opportunities for innovation.

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Procurement Scotland will deliver, or contribute to, the following benefits:

• Reduction in direct and indirect procurement expenditure
• Significant cashable savings derived from national collaborative procurement activity, and the ability to realise these cashable savings at a local level.
• Opportunity for experts to collaborate for the benefit of Scotland as a whole, through the establishment of cross sectoral category forums (National Category Forums - NCFs).
• Opportunity to focus local resources on unique local requirements.
• Improved management information relating to common national spend.
• Minimising duplication of effort and optimising the use of resources.
• Consistent Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable approaches to common national categories.
• Scotland wide view of SME engagement for common national categories, including opportunity for innovation.

Procurement Scotland has a number of functions including:

• Collaborative Procurement Delivery: development and delivery of national category strategies in collaboration with sectoral CoE partners and NPCoE end-user customers.
• Capability Development: e-enabling and facilitating the development and access to high quality National contracts.
• National People and Skills: providing a collaborative platform to develop and enhance the skills of procurement staff across the public sector.
• Project, Business and Communications Management: structured planning, tracking and reporting of activities.

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