Strategic aims
The key priorities of the Procurement Service’s Procurement Strategy are:
- continue the quest for best value
- sustainable procurement
- promoting equality and tackling inequalities
- collaborative working
- team development
- systems and reporting requirements
- Anchor programme
Continue the quest for best value
We will engage with stakeholders and suppliers to identify new ways to achieve best value through supportive challenge of specifications and service levels, the use of innovative solutions where appropriate, and ongoing engagement with key suppliers and stakeholders through the contract management process post-award.
We will embrace quality improvement with a view to ensuring that our processes are as efficient as they can be for the benefit of our stakeholders, our suppliers and ourselves.
Procurement are a sub-group of NHS Golden Jubilee’s ‘Achieving a Balance’ programme and have identified the following project areas to improve value:
- Reporting Improvements – these will give budget holders better information to inform their own decisions.
- Review use of existing agreements.
- Reduction of non-contracted spend.
- Further roll out of scan for safety system.
- Consideration of innovative routes to market.
Sustainable procurement
Sustainable procurement can be defined as “A process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis and generates benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society, the economy and the environment”.
We will continue to develop our practice with respect to sustainable procurement duty, outlined in Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The sustainable procurement duty dictates that before any purchase is made, a contracting authority must think about how it can improve the social, environmental and economic wellbeing of the area in which it operates with a view to reducing inequality.
It also requires the contracting authority to consider how it’s procurement processes can broaden access to contracts for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), the third sector and supported businesses. There is an expectation that there will be a positive social impact from procurement activity in Scotland.
We will continue, at every opportunity, to promote innovation and harness more sustainable technologies whilst encouraging suppliers to provide more sustainable goods and services. We recognise that Sustainable Procurement is a fundamental principle of all Procurements.
Procurement form a sub-group of NHS Golden Jubilee’s Climate Change and Sustainability Steering Group and report in to the main group against progress on:
- Development of this strategy.
- Utilising Scottish Government’s Sustainable Prioritisation tool against each year’s work plan to identify procurements to target for sustainable benefits.
- Inclusion of sustainability criteria using the sustainability test tool.
- Reporting of benefits delivered by contracts.
Promoting Equality and Tackling inequalities
We will continue to comply with the legal requirements of the Equality Act 2010 which specifies that procurement should pay due regard to the award criteria (economic viability and performance) and equality considerations. The Procurement Service has the responsibility for ensuring all procurement meets the requirements of Equality and Diversity Legislation and make suppliers aware of the requirement of the Equality Act 2010. This is embedded in our Invitation to Tender Documents where suppliers are asked to provide information on Company Policy and Practice to enable us to log market compliance with equality legislation and best practice.
Collaborative working
We will continue to engage with NHS national boards’ in order to use our resources as efficiently as possible. We will seek collaborative opportunities within the NHS and beyond wherever these have the potential to deliver value to our Board. We will continue to work with the West of Scotland Boards whilst exploring any opportunities Scotland wide and in particular Lothian Health Board in further maximising both joint and cardiac device procurements.
Team development
In order to achieve the key priorities, set out above, we will continue to develop the skills of procurement team members to ensure they remain capable of delivering a high quality, legally compliant service. We will continuously seek innovative ways to recruit and develop new and existing members of the team in recognition of the current gap in these skill across the procurement community including the NHS in Scotland.
Our Head of Procurement has previous experience within this area and is a member of the NSS NHSS Sustainable Workforce Steering Group. This group will provide senior leadership to champion, mentor and develop sustainable workforce solutions for NHSS Procurement Services.
Systems and Reporting Improvements
We will continue to consider systems and reporting improvements. This will include roll out of delegated purchase order approvals via PECOS as well as further roll out of the Scan for Safety System and linked reporting of the new data gathered as part of this system. As an early adopter our input into Scan for Safety reporting can then have national benefits as the system is rolled out across other boards.
Anchor Programme
Procurement sit on the NHSGJ Anchor Programme Steering Group. Anchor institutions can make a substantial difference to their local communities through:
- Employment
- Procurement of goods, services and infrastructure
- Environmental sustainability
- Land and assets
- Products and service delivery and design
- Working in partnership across a wider area or place
Procurement therefore have an important role within the group and in particular the local benefit derived from the procurement of goods, services and infrastructure. Procurement have agreed KPIs as part of this group which will be reported annually.
