Top 10 longest wait for current outstanding FOIs: FOI review

Information requested

I note the letter from Maree Todd MSP, Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance and Public Administration Committee of 9/5/23 regarding the national care Service Scotland Bill (https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/finance-and-public-administrationcommittee/ correspondence/2023/ncsbill_ministerscmwstoconvener_9may23.pdf)

In the course of the letter the minister outlines a total spend on consultancy on a National Care Service of £ 2,206,096.33. I would like to be provided with details of this cost. Specifically, the duration of each consultancy contract, to whom it was awarded, the purpose of the contract/ work being undertaken, and the cost.

I acknowledge that we did not meet the deadline for responding to your original FOI request, which was 14 June 2023, please accept our apologies for this. This was due to the significant amount of information that we had to review in relation to your request.

The National Care Service Programme continues to seek ways to improve the transparency and accuracy of reporting across the Programme as it develops and grows. Due to this and year-end adjustments there have been adjustments made in the costs previously submitted to the Finance and Public Administration Committee. The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport has now subsequently written to the Committee on 16 June 2023 to provide an update on the National Care Service Programme's costs. Details of this updated total spend on consultancy is outlined below.

Area	21/22 (£000’s)	22/23 (£000’s)	23/34 (Period 1 only (£000’s)	Total
Consultancy	£302	£1,683	£29	£2,014

Response

A breakdown of the updated Consultancy figure is detailed below.

• KPMG were awarded a contract to produce a ‘Current Operating Model’ for the current social care sector, a ‘Target Operating Model’ for the National Care Service and a Programme Business Case. The contract cost the Scottish Government £655,200 (incl. VAT) and duration was between was 13 December 2021 – 12 June 2023.
• PwC were awarded a contract for advice and report on Programme Governance arrangements and a Design Authority within the National Care Service Programme. The contract cost the Scottish Government £107,021 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 3 September 2021 –
  3 November 2021.
• PwC were awarded a contract for undertaking analysis and the production of a report for the public consultation on A National Care Service for Scotland. The contract cost the Scottish Government £82,032 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 22 November 2021 – 11 February 2022.
• Capgemini were awarded a consultancy contract for undertaking International Research to understand what digital approaches, services and products have enabled similar services outside of Scotland and what lessons can be learned from both successful and unsuccessful digital projects and programmes. The focus was on the technical and practical elements of work rather than the policy drivers. The contract cost the Scottish Government £58,800 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 24 February 2022 – 15 April 2022.
• Socitm were awarded a contract for undertaking a review of the technology, service and digital architectural landscape across the public, private and third sector organisations who are involved in the delivery of social care services in Scotland to understand what will and will not work in the system. The contract cost the Scottish Government £380,778 (incl. VAT) and the duration was 12 May 2022 – 11 May 2023.
• CapGemini were awarded a contract for undertaking a platform review and data flows. This technical project allowed us to understand in granular detail how data is currently flowing in the social care and health system. This is vital to inform decisions on the future development of the integrated electronic social care and health record and will underpin work on information sharing regulations, subject to the passage of the NCS Bill. It also looked in existing national digital assets to ensure we have the right, detailed technical information to make safe and secure design decisions to reuse where appropriate rather than develop new assets. The contract cost the Scottish Government £406,476 (incl. VAT) and the duration is 15 August 2022 – 14 August 2023.
• Storm ID were awarded a contract for undertaking User Research. This allowed us to explore how people experience interacting with services in Scotland, with a particular focus on what data is important to them. The contract cost the Scottish Government £56,760 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 21 February 2022 – 27 April 2022.
• IPSOS Mori were awarded a consultancy contract for undertaking Justice Research. This allowed us to undertake a programme of research to provide an evidence base to support a decision on the possible inclusion of Justice Social Work (JSW) within a future National Care Service. This incorporate a desk review and series of interviews with JSW staff and service users across Scotland. The contract cost the Scottish Government £39,900 (incl. VAT) and the duration is between 9 January 2023 – 31 October 2023.
• This is Milk were awarded a contract for undertaking a User Centred Design Services. This allowed us to design work to analyse and illustrate current and potential to-be user journeys in Social Care and to support co-design activities with people with lived experience of social care support services. The contract cost the Scottish Government £25,313 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 13 March 2023 – 31 March 2023.
• Civic Computing were awarded a contract for undertaking Accessibility Services. This was to support development of a strategic approach in relation to best practice for our co-design approach focusing on four areas: enhancing organisational knowledge and digital accessibility and inclusion; accessible and inclusive digital publishing; engagement people in co-design; and usability testing of digital products and services. The contract cost the Scottish Government £73,536 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 27 February 2023 – 31 March 2023.
• Anderson Anderson Brown were awarded a contract for VAT Advice. This provided advice on necessary VAT preparations for the establishment of a NCS, and the VAT impact of different NCS scenarios and recommend any options and/or solutions that could potentially achieve a VAT neutral outcome. The contract cost the Scottish Government £49,949 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 16 January 2023 – 15 July 2023.
• Anderson Anderson Brown were awarded a contract for a Financial Controls Review. This provided advice to the NCS finance team on recommendations for improvement where necessary on the financial controls in place, the capacity and capability of the finance team, and the methodology used to provide estimates set-up and running costs for the NCS. The contract cost the Scottish Government £54,605 (incl. VAT) and the duration was between 25 April 2023 – 5 August July 2023.

There are two contracts valued at £24,174 that are attributed to the consultancy costs in the table above. We have not released information relating to these two contracts as they are not related to the National Care Service, those contract costs will be re-charged to the relevant areas in the Scottish Government.

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