Sustainable procurement duty - impact and value analysis: main report

Chapter 6: Strategic and operational guidance and support

There is a range of guidance and support available to public bodies in relation to implementation of the Duty. We describe the range of these in this chapter and explore the extent of take-up, and gaps identified.

Scottish Government support and guidance

Scottish Government offers a range of support and guidance to help public bodies comply with the Duty. Figure 6.1 illustrates the range of support and guidance available, and we discuss each element in more detail below.

Statutory guidance

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014: statutory guidance^[145] contains a chapter on sustainable procurement which provides definitions and examples of good practice.

Sustainable Procurement Duty Tools^[146]

In addition, the Scottish Public Procurement Prioritisation Tool (SPPPT) is a source of support for public bodies. The SPPPT was developed to bring a standard structured approach to the assessment of spend categories. The risk and opportunity approach enable resources to be focused on areas with the greatest potential to generate benefits such as reduced carbon emissions and waste, financial savings, whilst driving innovation.

The Scottish Government has also designed a Sustainability Test to help embed relevant and proportionate sustainability requirements in the development of frameworks and contracts. It is a quick test and may be used as a standalone product or in conjunction with the SPPPT.

The Life Cycle Impact Mapping tool is used to identify environmental and social impacts of raw materials, manufacturing and logistics, use and disposal or end of life management at each stage in the product or service and address these in the procurement process. This method can be applied to categories before undergoing the prioritisation methodology.

The Flexible Framework Assessment Tool is a self-assessment tool that can be used to assess current levels of performance and the actions required to embed good procurement practice to realise intended sustainable outcomes. The action plan can include responsibilities and target dates for people, objectives, strategy, and communication, engaging stakeholders and monitoring and reporting.

The Scottish Government also has procurement and sustainable procurement training frameworks^[147] currently in place. The training frameworks can be accessed by all authorities in the public sector and offer courses involving the delivery of learning activities from the framework’s learning programme and the development of new learning activities.

Support documents^[148]

The Scottish Government has also published a series of detailed support documents on their website which provide guidance to help public bodies take a relevant and proportionate approach to embed sustainable actions in procurement processes. The guidance covers a range of 14 socio-economic and environmental factors including communities, equality, fair work, climate change, waste and biodiversity.

Scottish Government webinars

The Scottish Government also hosts webinars at key points in the procurement calendar and advertises these widely. The purpose of these webinars is to provide feedback and advice to help those who will be preparing annual procurement reports. Webinars were first held in December 2017 and March 2018 in advance of the first annual procurement reports to be published under the 2014 Act. Some 60 people participated across these two webinars and a Q&A resource and a set of slides were circulated to participants afterwards.

In April and May 2019, two further webinars were delivered and 61 people took part in these. The Scottish Government again developed a Q&A resource and circulated it along with the slides to participants after the webinars.

This suggests that take-up is reasonable but that there is scope for many more people across public bodies to take part.

Centres of expertise

There are four procurement centres of expertise in Scotland, which between them, provide support and guidance to public sector bodies in the central government, local government, further/higher education and health sectors. They are:

• Central Government Procurement;
• Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC);
• NHS National Procurement; and
• Scotland Excel (local authorities).

The heads of the four centres of expertise along with senior Scottish Government procurement officials make up the Public Procurement Group (PPG), which sets the national direction for public procurement for Scotland.

The PPG’s focus is on using its collective spending power to deliver sustainable and inclusive economic growth through the four power of procurement outcomes.  These align with the National Performance Framework and define what public contracts, policies and services should deliver.  They must be:

• good for business and their employees – promoting fair work, fair payment and the real opportunity to bid for and win public contracts
• good for society – working in a way that is mindful of the public sector’s impact on society and open to innovative approaches to act on some of Scotland’s most difficult social issues
• good for places and community – ensuring Scotland remains a globally progressive nation and acting in a way that engages with citizens, taking local priorities and environmental factors into account, and
• open and connected – operating across organisational boundaries to deliver trusted public services, within our collective resources

Scottish Government training

The Scottish Government has developed a training module - “An introduction to sustainable public procurement in Scotland”.^[149] A 20-minute module is completed ahead of attendance at a two-day training session.

Strategic forums

There are three strategic forums that support and deliver against the national priorities and milestones set out in the Public Procurement for Scotland (PPFS) workplan:

• collaborative leads group
• policy
• professional practice and development.

The forums are made up of officials from across the Centres of Expertise and beyond, to ensure an inclusive, cross-sector approach to policy and practice development. The forums engage individually and collectively with the Public Procurement Group.

Procurement Supply Group

The Procurement Supply Group is made up of representatives from business, third sector and trade unions. Its remit is to:^[150]

• provide an ongoing framework for dialogue about, and influence upon, public procurement practices as they affect suppliers; and
• support the Public Procurement Group and Strategic Forums in delivering the national priorities and PPFS workplan

Other support mechanisms

There are a number of other support mechanisms available to public procurement staff. These include in-house training; training purchased externally; and a range of good practice fora facilitated by a range of organisations. These include cross-sectoral fora such as the Local Government Procurement Managers’ Forum (chaired by Renfrewshire Council).

Some public bodies also host their own internal fora for exchanging good practice. Renfrewshire Council, for example, has a Community Benefits Forum which is a cross-service working group which also includes a third sector partner.

Feedback on support and guidance

The support and guidance available to public bodies seems to be well known and accessed by many organisations, although as previously noted, take-up of training and webinars could be higher.

For example, some public bodies noted in annual procurement reports that they applied the Duty Tools in conducting procurement processes to identify and address how they can optimise the economic and social outcomes from their procurement activity - “We completed a Sustainability Test before conducting any regulated tender process. This ensured we have taken full consideration of social and economic wellbeing of our area before going out to market and allows us to demonstrate we have considered whole life costs and life cycle impact mapping at the initial stage of every regulated contract” (Highlands and Islands Enterprise).^[151]

While interviewees generally seemed to find the guidance and tools to be of high quality, many fed back that they find them too detailed and time-consuming “to wade through”. This is something which should be considered in the ongoing review of the Sustainable Procurement Duty Tools.

A number of gaps were identified by interviewees and survey respondents which require to be addressed in future. We outline these below:

• more guidance on addressing environmental wellbeing (particularly in relation to climate change - given the political push to enhance criteria in relation to climate change, some interviewees described a significant need for knowledge and expertise to be developed)
• more guidance on how to address and encourage innovation
• more opportunities for exchanging good practice. Programmes like Ready for Business were highly valued and are missed now that they are no longer available to the third sector