Although the legal offices staffed by GLSS lawyers are all formally independent of one another, certain common support services and resources are shared. In particular, these shared services and resources facilitiate recruitment and assignment of staff and provide for training and development, library services and knowledge management, and information technology.
The Business Division within SGLD has a key role on behalf of the GLSS in managing and co-ordinating -
Recruitment and assignment of staff
See separate Careers page
Training and development
The GLSS is committed to the provision of effective training for all its staff, both in terms of job-specific training and with a view to wider personal and career development. It has a structured approach to training which offers learning opportunities suitable for staff at all levels and covering legal, management and administrative and IT training. Much of it involves bespoke training developed and delivered in house on core areas of work, such as preparation of primary and subordinate legislation. Some is delivered through the Executive's training programme or by external providers.
Knowledge management and library services
The Solicitor's Legal Information Centre (SLIC) co-ordinates legal information and library facilities. It acts as a forum for knowledge management and the development of legal information initiatives, with responsibility for managing the SGLD intranet; provides a research service for legal staff; and also provides legal research training. In addition it is part of SLIC's role to provide specialist advice to staff on areas such as copyright, document storage, information dissemination and electronic records management.
Information technology
IT support services are provided centrally by the Scottish Government for most of the offices staffed by GLSS lawyers. This includes developmental support, assistance in the planning and creation of databases and web pages and the administration of IT systems.
Outsourcing
Separately from their involvement in the sharing of resources within the GLSS, SGLD and some of the other offices staffed by GLSS lawyers buy in some legal services. This allows some classes and items of business to be outsourced to legal firms, where particular expertise not available internally is required, or where the type of the work is commonly carried out in the private sector and outsourcing allows resources within the offices to be freed up to carry out core public law work.
There have been arrangements with outsourcing partners both for the inward secondment of staff, as well as for the transfer out of work. This co-operation between public and private sectors enables GLSS staff to broaden their experience of working in different ways and allows outsourcing partners to acquire first hand experience of government legal work.