Innovative solutions
Scotland Excel’s contract portfolio will continue to be the core service we
provide to local authorities. Over the past ten years, we have helped to establish
procurement as an effective mechanism for supporting local government
financial challenges, both at a national level through collaborative contracts and
through initiatives which increase procurement capability locally within councils.
As our contract portfolio matures, it becomes more
difficult to drive further savings from each new
generation of contract. New contract development
areas will continue to be led by national and
local policy priorities where there is a significant
opportunity to realise benefits through involving
procurement in early intervention and/or service
innovations which support better outcomes for
people and communities.
We will continue to champion digital transformation
across the sector through our work with the
Digital Office for Scottish Local Government.
Harnessing the power of technology within our own
organisation, we will use our market knowledge
and spend data to optimise our existing contract
portfolio and introduce new performance measures
which demonstrate best value. Market insight
will be shared with customers where there is the
potential to support service planning, particularly in
social care.
We will also seek to accelerate the benefits
that councils can achieve locally through our
learning and development and business change
programmes. As well as sector-wide opportunities
for developing professional and organisational
practice, we will offer on-site consultancy
programmes to identify savings and embed
procurement knowledge and practice. These
services offer a significant cost advantage over
private sector consultants, and retain intellectual
property within local government.
Progress to date
Hugh Carr, Scotland Excel
18 | Shared Vision, Shared Success. Our Corporate Strategy 2018–2023
In March 2018, the value of our contract portfolio
reached £1bn, largely due to our focus on delivering
high risk, high value contracts in construction
and social care. Our £200m framework for energy
efficiency contractors (EEC), awarded in May 2017,
was our highest value contract to date.
The EEC framework provides councils with an
efficient route to market for works funded through
national energy efficiency programmes which help
to reduce fuel poverty. In addition, we have recently
secured funding to develop a national house
building contract to help accelerate the Scottish
Government’s commitment to deliver 50,000
affordable new homes by 2021.
In social care, we are providing procurement
and contract management support for existing
national arrangements for older people’s care
home services. Working with COSLA, the Scottish
Government and other partners on the reform
of adult social care, we have developed a new
procurement strategy for these services which will
support greater choice and innovation in the care
home market.
We have also developed a procurement proposal
for adult care and support services which are not
currently covered by national arrangements. These
services enable older people and vulnerable adults
to remain living safely in their own homes, reducing
the likelihood of hospital admissions and providing
an alternative to more costly care home services.
A national framework will support the delivery of
personalised outcomes at a sustainable cost for
councils and providers.
In October 2017, the Scottish Government
committed to almost doubling the entitlement to
free early learning and childcare provision by 2020.
To help local authorities deliver this commitment
– which aims to close the poverty gap by reducing
barriers to employment for parents and offering
Shared Vision, Shared Success. Our Corporate Strategy 2018–2023 | 19