Procurement - national collaborative: service enhancement plan March 2025

Foreword

Through harnessing the collective buying power of the Scottish public sector, Scottish Government’s National Collaborative Procurement Division (NCPD) has helped public sector customers to realise over £818 million in commercial savings over the last 6 years.

Our strengths lie in supporting over 250 organisations to purchase on a cross-sectoral basis, leading to a yearly spend of £1.6 billion through our 35+ national frameworks. Our ambition is to grow the use of national frameworks even further, delivering even greater value and benefit for the public sector.

The Scottish Public Sector spends more than £16 billion per annum on the purchase of goods, works and services. Just under 10% of this total is spent collectively on the cross-sectoral, consolidated frameworks established by NCPD. There is much potential to increase this collective spend figure and, in doing so, maximise Scottish public sector buying power for the ultimate benefit of the people of Scotland.

‘to drive greater efficiency, use of cross-sectoral consolidated procurement should be increased’.

(Resource Spending Review 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

‘maximise the impact of public procurement – driving consistency of application, leveraging collaborative buying power’. Programme for Government 2023-2024

Our Service Enhancement Plan describes how the NCPD will develop its services to play an important role in supporting the delivery of Public Sector Reform and in helping to achieve the aims of the Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland and the Scottish Government Procurement Strategy.

It sets out our ambition to increase once for Scotland buying power by expanding the use of Category A, national collaborative framework agreements offered by the NCPD. Greater use of these framework agreements could achieve an increase in real value, cash savings and social benefit for the 250+ public sector organisations eligible to access them.

Through our consultation, we are aware that cross-sectoral consolidated buying should work in tandem with local community priorities and not be at the expense of the local economy. In striving for a once for Scotland position, wherever appropriate, we will be cognisant of the principles of the Verity House Agreement, ‘local by default, national by agreement’. Our commitment will be to work in partnership to help our customers gain best value for the communities they serve, whilst supporting an efficient public sector and the national economy.

The Plan has been developed through consultation with Centres of Expertise, with customers using our current framework portfolio and with our own staff.

Customers would like to see an increased emphasis on collaboration, streamlined access to information and the introduction of focused support to identify savings and potential for greater value. To meet these requirements, we will also consider how we are organised to offer flexibility and increased access to expertise through the services we provide.

Priority areas for enhancement have been identified as follows:

1. Strengthened collaborative procurement ecosystem

2. Improved communications & collaborative working

3. Enhanced collaborative approach to framework design

4. Customer-focused services & enhanced customer management

5. Improved access to & better use of information

6. A flexible operating structure and culture of continuous improvement

Given current financial pressures, funding for improvements remains an issue. However, there is much we can do within existing NCPD resources that will make a difference. For any enhancement that will require additional funding, the consensus from our customers is that priority requirements, which deliver additional benefits for the public sector, can be considered on a case by case basis and appropriate funding mechanisms identified as part of any business case approvals process.

We would like to thank you for your continued collaboration. Working together we can deliver on our ambitions to maximise commercial value for an efficient Scottish economy and positive social outcomes for the people of Scotland.

Calum Elliot, Deputy Director, Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate

Bridget Lambert, Head of National Collaborative Procurement