Scottish Government procurement: annual report 2020 to 2021

5. Key challenges of the reporting period

The reporting period was dominated by the significant challenge of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In responding to this, our work was re-aligned, progressed and – when we were able to take a step back from immediate and critical priorities – planned, within the Scottish Government's Respond, Reset, Restart and Recover framework. Through this we actively looked for ways to leverage procurement to support cash flow, jobs and productive capacity through the public and private sectors. This included swift action to provide guidance to public bodies to help minimise the impact on public procurement activity as far as possible and support organisations, suppliers and communities.

We had to balance efforts between rapidly responding to critical issues, whilst in parallel planning practical actions and developing policy to respond to the pandemic.

Some of the key actions we took:

• Repurposed procurement teams to support the pandemic, stopping or delaying work which could be de-prioritised to allow us capacity to address critical issues.
• Maximised resources through releasing colleagues to directly support our Health Directorate and NHS in the purchase of key product lines during the pandemic.
• Supported (and continue to support) our suppliers through the crisis with supplier relief initiatives, including accepting changes to Key Performance Indicators / service levels.
• Took a considered approach to when and how to approach the market, taking into account the supply chain's ability to respond to our needs.
• Facilitated faster and prompt payments to suppliers to make sure that funds were able to flow through the supply chain and into the economy, helping protect the resilience of our supply chains.
• Published a series of Scottish Procurement Policy Notes (SPPNs) and a separate series of Construction Policy Notices. These provide guidance on the handling of some procurement-related issues as a consequence of the outbreak, and give public bodies guidance on options for paying their suppliers to support cash flow and ensure service continuity during the pandemic.

As we plan for longer-term goals and ambitions, we are taking our lead from policy areas across the Scottish Government, helping to establish the norms of a wellbeing economy.

Many of our agreements have been influential in supporting Scotland's COVID-19 response in a variety of settings.

Case study: portable sanitation units

Early in the pandemic (April 2020) an urgent requirement arose to provide portable sanitation units for the Travelling community at various sites across Scotland to ensure that individual family units were able to self-isolate safely and comply with local and national lockdown restrictions.

We liaised with the Travelling community through existing Local Authority relationships to identify specific individual site requirements for toilets and washing facilities. Working within the flexibility offered in the Scottish procurement regulations, we engaged Scotloos, Smartloos and Envirosan to deliver 36 toilets across various sites.

The immediate delivery of a four berth shower unit with generator and water tanks for a roadside camp in Dundee, where there were several families with no washing facilities, including two pregnant women, made an immediate difference to this community. The units remained on the sites until no longer required by the Travelling community.

Case study: Connecting Scotland

Our Mobile Voice and Data Services and Web-Based and Proprietary Devices frameworks played a key role in helping meet the Connecting Scotland programme. This aims to deliver internet connectivity and devices to up to 60,000 digitally excluded households by the end of 2021.

The Connecting Scotland programme is an ambitious project, not only in terms of delivering social value, but also in the scale at which it seeks to deliver digital technology solutions to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society across Scotland. We are delivering it in partnership with the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), all 32 local authorities, and third sector organisations across Scotland.

Through our strategic relationships with our framework suppliers, we secured and delivered a number of benefits not only in terms of cost but also the delivery of technologies and solutions at a time of immense upheaval and constraints within the supply-chain. For example Vodafone Ltd, our supplier of Mobile Voice and Data Services, agreed to provide 40,000 mi-fi devices valued at £1.2 million, free of charge to the programme. And XMA Ltd, our framework supplier of Web-Based and Proprietary Devices, provided service desk support and digital skills training to device to users at no cost.

Case study: Economic Benefits – during COVID-19

Our General Stationery provider, Lyreco was in a position to offer added value, supporting the NHS logistically (on a non-paid basis) during the COVID-19 crisis. We worked with Lyreco and arranged for them to collect products from the NHS outsourced distribution business in Hamilton and distribute vital items to care homes in Scotland through maximising their delivery service. This enabled vital provision of safety and hygiene products to these premises.

Case study: Food Packages for those shielding through COVID-19

At the height of lockdown we arranged food parcels for vulnerable people who were shielding across Scotland. Working collaboratively with other governments across UK, we arranged Scotland-specific contracts. We opened a dialogue with two suppliers, issued letters of intent to ensure that services could begin immediately, and negotiated robust contract terms with the suppliers.

The scheme was in operation from early April to late July 2020, delivering essential boxes each week to around 50,000 households across Scotland, ensuring that the most vulnerable people had access to food and other basic necessities. The final value of the contracts was £50,289,345.

Case study: National 'PPE' – Alpha Solway

Alpha Solway are a Scottish SME supplying Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and employed 75 people in Dumfries and Galloway.

The pandemic provided them the opportunity to invest and expand their operations with production for face masks moving back to Scotland in March 2020 and the opening of a second factory in the area. This was a £2.5 million investment in the site which was made possible with support from Scottish Enterprise and ourselves along with contracts from NHS Scotland.

By June 2020, and with the delivery of new machinery, production capacity increased to 1 million masks per week with raw materials being sourced from Forfar and the Lake District.

In March 2021 £4.8 million funding support from South of Scotland Enterprise enabled Alpha Solway to build a new factory worth £12 million and support an additional 300 jobs.