Invest to Save Fund proposals: FOI release

Information requested

Referred to in the Herald article:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/holyrood/24938831.investing-save-plan-strengthen-scotlands-public-sector/

I request a summary of all of the proposals submitted to Mr McKee for consideration seeking funding under the STS initiative. The response should include the cost of a proposal and whether it was successful in receiving funding.

Response

In response to your request I enclose some of the information you requested.

Summary of all of the proposals submitted to the Invest to Save fund and funding requested:

Name of Organisation Aberdeen City Council

Summary of proposed project. To address the increasing demands and pressures from an ageing population with complex care needs, by developing advanced digital tools to enhance care efficiency and quality, ensuring services are flexible, comprehensive, and person centred.

Amount requested £1238627

Name of Organisation Disclosure Scotland

Summary of proposed project. Safeguarding Reform through Automation. To develop and implement automation software that will significantly reduce administrative and manual casework requirements, increasing throughput of protection services.

Amount requested £898458

Name of Organisation Scottish Canals

Summary of proposed project. Scottish Canals Transformation Programme. To establish a ‘Routemap’ for a new operating model for canal operations and service provision for all boating customers and visitors.

Amount requested £300000

Name of Organisation South of Scotland Enterprise (SoSE)

Summary of proposed project. Business Support Partnership Master Customer Record (MCR). A data platform designed to consolidate data from both linked systems and publicly available sources to serve as an authoritative source of truth for customer data, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and completeness.

Amount requested £659000

Name of Organisation Scottish Government (SG) Directorate for Environment and Forestry (EnFor)

Summary of proposed project. Multi Agency Co-ordinated Fish Farm Consenting. The project will design and deliver a digital platform to support efficient, effective and transparent marine fish farm regulation, including the roll out of streamlined and integrated consenting of marine fish farm developments.

Amount requested £261250

Name of Organisation EnFor

Summary of proposed project. Phase 1 is the purchase of two test instruments which can be used to measure bathing water quality. Phase 2 maintains and increases the phase 1 capability, and associated savings, and deploys the technology at key locations. Phase 3 is a national rollout, which would bring the benefit of making the real-time bathing water quality available.

Amount requested £60000

Name of Organisation EnFor

Summary of proposed project. Fly Tipping. To support the Scottish Government Litter and Fly tipping Strategy. Illegal operators are able to offend multiple times and receive the profits of their actions without the appropriate level of shared enforcement to disrupt their activities or deter future activities.

Amount requested £500000

Name of Organisation SEPA

Summary of proposed project. Air Modelling. To extend the modelling capabilities of UK Air Pollution Assessment Service to incorporate air pollution dispersion for the assessment of human health. The proposal will utilise the existing modelling package within UK APAS, develop the dispersion module for the provision of pollutant concentrations from additional sources and provide the GIS interface required for processing modelling data. The proposal will also expand on the digitisation to help facilitate the dispersion model parameters.

Amount requested £244500

Name of Organisation SEPA

Summary of proposed project. Customer focused collaborative system. Part of a wider programme of work. One of the key aims is to establish a Cross Regulatory Transformation group which will enable collaboration across a number of organisations and agencies across the UK. Playing a key part in feeding into the success of this project and cross-cutting projects, not only in Scotland, but throughout the UK.

Amount requested £2295000

Name of Organisation Food Standards Scotland

Summary of proposed project. Scottish Authorities Food Enforcement Re-Build. A proposal to develop and deliver a new model for food law regulation, ensuring efficient, robust and sustainable targeting interventions which optimise public health protection and support a thriving food sector.

Amount requested £3247110

Name of Organisation Education Scotland

Summary of proposed project. AI-Driven Innovation: Transforming Inspection Evaluation, Data Analysis and Dissemination. To integrate artificial intelligence (AI) to modernise educational inspection practices, evaluation processes, and data analysis, while improving the accessibility and impact of inspection findings.

Amount requested £1121531

Name of Organisation Education Scotland

Summary of proposed project. Digitally transforming His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education. To improve efficiency, better information security, higher quality outputs, quicker decision-making, and increased satisfaction among stakeholders.

Amount requested £1121531

Name of Organisation Clackmannanshire council

Summary of proposed project. Transformation Space. Under the Fairer Futures Partnership banner, developing the approach of locally driven, targeted tests of change.

Amount requested £1000000

Name of Organisation Highland and Island Enterprise

Summary of proposed project. The Factory, Machrihanish. The demolition of Buildings A and C at The Factory site will allow the remediated development sites to be returned to and actively marketed for potential economic re-use and community benefit purposes.

Amount requested £246400

Name of Organisation SG Directorate for Justice

Summary of proposed project. Transcription Technology. To understand how new technology can be used across the justice system to more efficiently transcribe and translate information. Making the Scottish Criminal Justice the beacon of technology adopters and a justice system fit for now and generations to come.

Amount requested £350000

Name of Organisation SG Directorate for Justice

Summary of proposed project. Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Needs Assessment Tool. To develop a robust picture of the specific needs of women, children and young people experiencing VAWG in different local authority areas across Scotland and identify any areas of unmet need and/ or gaps in local service provision.

Amount requested £540000

Name of Organisation SG Directorate for Justice

Summary of proposed project. Safe spaces. To commission a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) of existing ‘safe spaces’.

Amount requested £70000

Name of Organisation SG Directorate for Justice

Summary of proposed project. National Victim and Witness Gateway. To create a website where victims and witnesses can access information about their case which will incorporate live information from across the justice system.

Amount requested £1050000

Name of Organisation SG Directorate for Justice

Summary of proposed project. Cashback for Communities. To deliver additional places on the Cashback programs. These places will be offered to young people who have been referred by court or released from prison.

Amount requested £49640

Name of Organisation Scottish Funding Council

Summary of proposed project. Transitional funding for simplification of post-school funding body landscape. The simplification of the post-school funding body landscape – ensuring fairness, transparency and maximising value for public investment.

Amount requested £3500000

Name of Organisation Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS)

Summary of proposed project. Jury Management Transformation Project. To support the transformation of how SCTS engage, communicate and encourage the Scottish public to serve as jurors and uphold the integrity of the Justice System.

Amount requested £901,000

Name of Organisation Scottish Environment and Protection Agency

Summary of proposed project. Voluntary Severance. A voluntary severance scheme took place during 2024/25. Further funding will be an important tool in facilitating restructure and supporting further transformation.

Amount requested £6250000

Name of Organisation Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Summary of proposed project. Reform Collaboration Group. Investment in a collaborative working group to create short term resources that would help drive change in line with Public Service Reform ambitions.

Amount requested £87000

Name of Organisation South of Scotland Enterprise

Summary of proposed project. Shaping SoSE for the Future (SSSF). To support delivery of the portfolio of development projects in the SSSF programme, ensuring structure and workforce are well-equipped and skilled to support the new operating model.

Amount requested £713704

Name of Organisation SG Directorate-General (DG) Corporate

Summary of proposed project. Scaling AI Automation. Scaling of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Automation as a transformation enabler across the Scottish Public Sector to deliver higher productivity and efficiency.

Amount requested £4929713

Name of Organisation SG DG Corporate

Summary of proposed project. Oracle Cloud Shared Services Strategy. To expedite the onboarding of organisations onto the Oracle Cloud (OC) platform, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that integrates and manages core business processes.

Amount requested £4000000

Name of Organisation SG DG Corporate

Summary of proposed project. Additional Assurance work for the Oracle Cloud platform. A long-term investment to ensure efficient and effective corporate services for decades to come. Streamlining business processes, improve data accuracy, and enhance decision-making capabilities while reducing the risk of system failure.

Amount requested £400000

Name of Organisation SG DG Health and Social Care

Summary of proposed project. Health & Social Care Digital Front Door. In the digital age, communication issues are the most common complaint category within NHS Scotland. This programme aims to improve patient communication.

Amount requested £4000000

Name of Organisation SG DG Health and Social Care

Summary of proposed project. NHS Innovation adoption. Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway to include: Digital Type 2 Diabetes remission programme, a national digital intensive weight management programme and a newborn babies genetic test via a point of care device to inform what drug they are given to manage an infection.

Amount requested £1900000

Name of Organisation SG DG Education and skills

Summary of proposed project. College Efficiency Fund. Creation of an innovative fund to deliver transformation in Scotland’s college sector by providing a centralised engine for collaboration, innovation, and efficiency while introducing efficient platforms for colleges to utilise.

Amount requested £4240000

Name of Organisation SG DG Economy

Summary of proposed project. ADS Workforce Reform and Digital Innovation. A project intended to review and optimise opportunities for shared services, automation of systems and working to maximise impact and reduce costs.

Amount requested £120000

Name of Organisation Glasgow City Council

Summary of proposed project. Connected care-smart care homes. A Smart & Connected Social Places Programme exploring connected digital solutions to enhance public services and deliver efficiency gains in Housing and Health & Social Care.

Amount requested £100000

Name of Organisation Perth and Kinross Council

Summary of proposed project. Delivery of Recurring Cost Savings through Improved Energy Management. To reduce energy costs and deliver a reduction in environmental impact by generating actionable insights into where waste energy is being consumed.

Amount requested £529125

Name of Organisation Perth and Kinross Council

Summary of proposed project. Digital leadership. To strengthen the development of leaders-if local government, and the broader public sector is to successfully undergo  radical public service reform, it requires leaders who are confident and skilled to meet the challenges faced.

Amount requested £78200

Name of Organisation Perth and Kinross Council

Summary of proposed project. Data literacy Academy Executive briefing. If local government, and the broader public sector is to successfully undergo the radical public service reform an appropriately resourced, skilled and innovative workforce model will be required. This programme will deliver a specialised Executive Briefing for public sector leaders.

Amount requested £80650

Name of Organisation Perth and Kinross Council

Summary of proposed project. Data driven leader. This proposal seeks to strengthen the development and delivery of data literacy for Local Authorities to build capacity in alignment with A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world and Scotland’s Local Government Workforce Report 2024.

Amount requested £387030

Name of Organisation Perth and Kinross Council

Summary of proposed project. Data literacy Academy Data Literacy. Delivery of data literacy for Local Authorities to build capacity in alignment with A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world and Scotland’s Local Government Workforce Report 2024.

Amount requested £403419

Name of Organisation Perth and Kinross Council

Summary of proposed project. AI and automation by design. To develop digital learning for Local Authorities to build capacity for digital transformation in alignment with A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world and Scotland’s Local Government Workforce Report 2024. The workforce is a key part of ensuring delivery of the council of the future, as articulated in the report Delivering a future for Scottish Local Authorities. To successfully undergo public service reform, an appropriately resourced, skilled and innovative workforce model will be required.

Amount requested £229670

Name of Organisation Dumfries and Galloway Council

Summary of proposed project. Resilient Workforce. To strengthen the capacity and resilience of the LG workforce in Scotland to enable it to be more able to lead and deliver transformation and public sector reform.

Amount requested £599000

Name of Organisation Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils

Summary of proposed project. Work to identify and explore opportunities for financial and non-financial benefits fromcloser collaboration.

Amount requested £2000000

Name of Organisation Local Government Single Authority Model

Summary of proposed project. To ascertain the costs of delivery of integrated public services.

Amount requested £1400000

In regard to successful bids that received funding. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions 27 - Information intended for future publication applies to that information. An announcement of successful bids will be made within 12 weeks of this request.

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