Foreword
Having spent much of my career in procurement, I was delighted to take
on the role of Convener of the Scotland Excel Joint Committee following the
May 2017 local government elections.
My first year in this post has been something of a
whirlwind as I have learned about the organisation’s
many achievements since its launch in April 2008,
and why it truly deserves its status as a centre of
procurement expertise.
These achievements have continued apace during my
first year of office. To give just a few examples, this
year Scotland Excel has expanded its work in social
care to help ensure the sustainable delivery of services
for the most vulnerable members of society, created
a new ‘small value’ contract service to free up time
for local authority procurement teams and held the
Supplier Excellence Awards to highlight the range of
benefits being delivered by suppliers.
Scotland Excel has continued to evolve its leading
change services to help local authorities develop
their procurement skills, tools and processes. In 2017,
national Procurement & Commercial Improvement
Programme (PCIP) assessments were completed with
all 32 councils to support targeted improvement in
the sector’s capability. A suite of new learning and
development opportunities available through the
Scotland Excel Academy provides further opportunity
for council staff to enhance their knowledge and skills
across a range of key disciplines.
As a champion of community empowerment, I have
been particularly impressed with the effort Scotland
Excel makes to understand local requirements and
engage with different communities throughout
Scotland. This goes beyond initiatives encouraging
local suppliers to take part in tenders, and seeks to
create dialogue among key stakeholders. In February,
I had the pleasure of attending their Supported
Business Event which brought representatives from
the supported business community together with
councils to explore opportunities for working together.
I am also encouraged by Scotland Excel’s involvement
of service users in the development of contracts.
Most recently, young people were engaged in the
development of the new children’s residential care
services contract, and a number of their ideas
were included as part of the service specifications.
I am pleased that Scotland Excel has committed
to continuing to engage with service users and
communities in this new strategy.
4 | Shared Vision, Shared Success. Our Corporate Strategy 2018–2023
Another area of interest to me is ICT and, in
particular, the benefits that can be offered to
communities through increased application of
digital technologies within councils. It is good to see
Scotland Excel continuing to support these goals
through partnerships with the public sector education
technology provider, SEEMiS Group, and the Digital
Office for Scottish Local Government. I look forward
to seeing the outputs of these partnerships as the new
strategy progresses.
In today’s challenging financial climate, partnerships
are an important way for public sector organisations
to increase efficiency, share knowledge and deliver
more and better services. This is just one route that
Scotland Excel is pursuing to ensure its long term
sustainability, along with exploring alternative funding
models and extending its reach into new sectors such
as housing. Scotland Excel’s commitment to always
putting the customer first will ensure that the benefits
delivered by these new approaches will be shared
by all.
This new five year corporate strategy demonstrates
that Scotland Excel has no intention of resting on
its laurels. It builds on the success of the past three
years and clearly articulates how the organisation
can achieve more on behalf of its local government
members and partners. It also recognises that to
ensure its sustainability, it must consider a range
of funding options and continue to demonstrate a
measurable return on investment.
Scotland Excel’s achievements over the past ten
years reflect well on the organisation. But this
success is something we can all be proud of within
local government; it demonstrates how much we,
as councils, have achieved through a collaborative
approach. I am sure you will join me in congratulating
Scotland Excel in this, their tenth anniversary year,
and welcome the publication of this ambitious new
corporate strategy.
Councillor John Shaw
Renfrewshire Council, and
Convener of Scotland Excel’s Joint Committee
Shared Vision, Shared Success. Our Corporate Strategy 2018–2023 | 5