Scotland's journey of achieving sustainable procurement outcomes 2002-2022: independent review

Appendix 1: Topic Guide

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Introduction

• Details of role, length of time in the organisation, main duties etc
• Their role in the procurement process/journey (PROBE FOR DETAILS AND REFINE INTERVIEW ACCORDINGLY)

History of procurement

• Could we begin by discussing your understanding of the evolving role of procurement, and specifically, sustainable procurement leading to social impact within Scotland? And in the UK in general?
• What have been your experiences in this area? (Probe for differences if have worked for more than one contracting authority)
• What have been the key learnings/solutions?
• What have been the key facets to moving this work forward e.g., policy/legislation/embedding/promotion/sharing of results/buy in at senior level?
• What have been the main barriers?
  • what solutions have been put in place to overcome these barriers?
  • which ones still exist?

Current procurement practice

• How would you rate the effectiveness of the current processes in place in procurement policy and legislation with respect to facilitating and driving wider economic, social and environmental benefits? PROBE
  • accessibility
  • threshold
  • frameworks
  • outcomes focused approach rather than monetary value
  • support provided via e.g., Procurement Journey and Supplier Journey, SPPNs, Climate and Procurement Forum etc.
• What your opinions of the associated tools and guidance?
• What resources/practices have been enablers?
• How would you rate the support provided to SMEs and third sector organisation to be procurement ready? (Supplier Development Programme, Partnership for Procurement)

To what extent do you agree that

• sustainable procurement outcomes are being integrated?
• sustainable procurement outcomes are achieving significant positive impacts in Scotland?
• Why do you say that?

And are you aware of how this information is recorded, shared, promoted?

What good looks like?

• In your opinion, what does good look like in terms of sustainable procurement leading to social impact?
• Do you have any feedback/evidence on the long-term impact of procurement in terms of sustainable outcomes?
• What are the key factors that would define this?

Do you have any instances of best practice that you think should be shared? In relation to

• social impact/community benefits/developing the supply chain
• other sustainable procurements outcomes
• Fair Work practices
• innovative ways of engaging with communities to set local, as well as meet national priorities
• considering equality and the impact on particular target/vulnerable groups
• social impact being at the centre of the organisation's approach to procurement
• social impact/community benefit and procurement being embedded in BAU activity within contractors (including roles created to support this)
• collaboration leading to maximised outcomes – early engagement
• how benefits relate to National Performance Framework
• procurement of sub-contractors
• contract management

And what are the key learning/themes that we should pull from this?

What are the best ways to promote/share this information so it can be implemented?

How can we be innovative in this approach?

Barriers

What barriers exist? PROBE

• buy in, negative perceptions
• size of organisation – fair competition
• measuring impact, additionality and sustainability
  • resources, cost and capability within organisation
  • detailing who has ownership for this once the contract ends
  • lack of evidence base of long-term outcomes
  • need for systematic monitoring
  • awareness of how social impact/community benefit relate to procurement
  • wide scope of what constitutes social impact and sustainability, consistent measures to indicate this
  • balancing local and national priorities
  • lack of clarity on definitions
  • perception that community benefit mainly relates to construction (generally short-term contracts so how does this link to sustainability?)
  • targeting of specific disadvantaged groups
  • accountability in delivery of outcomes

Learning from the UK

**refine depending on individual's role/awareness/understanding of UK policy and practice and repeat above questions accordingly

• What is your understanding/awareness of how procurement works in other parts of the UK?
  What could we learn from this practice/these areas?
• And what should the UK learn from what Scotland is doing?

Do you have any other comments in relation to sustainable procurement that we have not covered?