« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
ANNEX D: FURTHER INFORMATION ON CONSIDERATION OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT AND EXTERNAL SCRUTINY
Public Procurement
1. As Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook14 explains, public procurement has a key role to play in supporting sustainable economic growth in Scotland. The public sector spends over £8 billion each year on goods, works and services. It is essential that we make the best use of this significant amount of expenditure. We therefore considered the extent to which public procurement might be deployed to encourage employer interest in more effective skills utilisation.
2. We note that in February 2008 the Scottish Government published Community Benefits in Public Procurement15. Community benefits in this context are contractual requirements which deliver social benefit in addition to the core purpose of the contract; in particular, requirements in relation to targeted training and employment outcomes.
3. The accompanying guidance note focuses on the possibilities for including recruitment and training clauses in contracts and states that these should be part of the 'core elements' of what is being purchased. In considering whether public procurement can be used as a means to encourage skills utilisation, a key issue is therefore whether the public body is able to demonstrate that skills utilisation is part of a 'core element' of what is being purchased. We have been advised that the public body would also need to be able to demonstrate that it had properly considered all issues related to the requirement (are there other means of achieving the objective other than through the procurement route and if so what are the pros and cons?) and set quantifiable and achievable outcomes.
4. Colleagues in Scottish Procurement Directorate have confirmed that, where relevant to the subject of the contract, the procurement of (a) training for staff and (b) learning materials by a public body would be amenable to conditions to ensure effective skills utilisation. Conditions could be included to ensure that the learning and teaching (and learning materials) not only help develop skills but also help the later effective application of those skills in the workplace.
5. If a public body is purchasing training or learning materials, it should consider how to address in its tender documentation issues around the practical application of the training or learning materials. In this context, skills utilisation becomes integral to the delivery of the contract.
6. There may be other instances where, although not integral to the delivery of a contract, skills utilisation is nonetheless relevant to the subject matter. For example, a public body may engage consultants to research an issue and prepare a report of their findings. In order to equip its own staff with the skills and competencies required to implement the report and/or to undertake similar research in the future, the public body might address issues around skills utilisation in its tender documentation. This aspect of skills transfer has been included in post project review template for engagement of consultants within the Scottish Government 16.
7. We recommend that public bodies in Scotland consider whether, where appropriate, their procurement processes contribute to effective skills utilisation within their organisations.
8. It has been confirmed to us that conditions to ensure that learning is transferred effectively to the workplace could be applied to contracts which contain training requirements as part of community benefits clauses.
9. Beyond this, we have been advised that there is a legislative obstacle that would appear to prevent the inclusion of conditions to require effective skills utilisation in other types of contracts. That hurdle is that effective skills utilisation must be directly related to the subject matter of a particular contract . Contracts also need to include quantifiable and achievable outcomes 17.
10. That said, we would like to test these propositions. Skills Development Scotland will actively consider for each contract it tenders over a 6 month period whether conditions to encourage effective skills utilisation could in principle be directly related, including whether it would have been appropriate to ask tenderers to explain how they measure the effectiveness of their leadership and management practice. The agency will report back its findings to the Leadership Group.
External Scrutiny
11. The primary purpose of external scrutiny is to provide independent assurance that certain public services (whether delivered by public, private or third sector organisations) are well managed, safe and fit for purpose and that they represent the best value for money 18. However, external scrutiny in Scotland also plays an important role in influencing a culture of continuous improvement and striving towards excellence. It is a powerful driver of change. What is within the scope of the frameworks that scrutiny bodies use in the course of external audit, inspection and review can concentrate minds to deliver on them. We therefore considered the extent to which such scrutiny might be better deployed to encourage more effective skills utilisation. In doing so, we recognised that following the September 2007 report of the Crerar Review 19, the Scottish Government is seeking to reduce external scrutiny and make it more proportionate, and to replace it where appropriate with a robust system of self-evaluation.
12. We acknowledge that the primary responsibility for improvement clearly lies with the organisation providing the service and recommend that all public service self-evaluation frameworks encompass effective skills utilisation. However, models of self-evaluation and improvement, while becoming more prevalent in Scotland, are not yet embedded across all of our public bodies and other bodies key to the delivery of national outcomes. There is therefore a need to continue to drive this improvement for the time being, as these new models develop.
13. We also note that the current guidance on 'Best Value' recognises that employees are a key strategic resource and that the effective use of their skills is an important aspect of this. The Accounts Commission is presently consulting on a new approach to Best Value audit 20. The consultation paper proposes that " the Council is making the best use of use of its key resources (people, money, assets, staff) to deliver the council's strategic objectives" is one of six corporate characteristics of a Best Value council.
14. That said, not all external scrutiny bodies have remits that enable them to consider skills utilisation issues. Where they do, they tend not to convey outcomes in such terms. That is not surprising as, notwithstanding the explicit reference to such issues in the 2004 Best Value statutory guidance 21, recognition of this important issue is fairly new. Without wishing to impose any new burdens on scrutinised bodies, we consider that there is scope for external bodies to be clearer about the relevance of effective skills utilisation to their scrutiny. We recommend that external scrutiny bodies ensure, so far as is consistent with their functions and other aims underpinning their scrutiny regimes (including the importance of proportionate and risk-based scrutiny), that their frameworks allow scrutinised bodies to demonstrate that they are delivering ' leadership and management in the workplace that enables meaningful and appropriate encouragement, opportunity and support for staff to use their skills effectively'.
« Previous | Contents | Next »