Priority 6
Transport Scotland will maintain a high standard of procurement capability, implement best practice, recognise talent and implement continuous improvement.
Delivery sub-action 6.1
Ensure that our staff have access to consistent procurement advice and information and ensure that all such activity is compliant with current legislation.
Staff have access to guidance at all times through the dedicated procurement pages on our intranet, which includes our Procurement Toolkit and Transport Scotland Procurement Advice Notes. This guidance is regularly updated to ensure consistency with Scottish Government policy. Procurement advisors in the Procurement Team meet regularly to discuss live procurement issues, to ensure that consistent advice is available to all staff across the agency.
The Procurement Team operates a procurement query tracker which monitors the progress and outcome of all queries received. This tracker is reviewed regularly to ensure consistency of responses, and to identify training needs.
The Procurement Team runs compliance checks on our regulated procurements, auditing each procurement at key stages to ensure it has been undertaken in line with our Corporate Procurement Strategy and with current legislation.
Delivery sub-action 6.2
Deliver a programme of targeted procurement training to our staff to ensure that procurement activity remains compliant with current procurement legislation and policy.
DPA holders and other procurement staff are required to complete the Scottish Government Procurement Competency Framework to highlight areas where development is required. The Procurement Team incorporated feedback and updated our mandatory training requirements for DPA holders. Training for DPA holders is now run as a bespoke session on a one-to-one basis for new DPA holders, with refresher training being run in small groups for existing DPA holders.
Transport Scotland completes regular reviews of the procurement queries and lessons learned received to identify areas which would benefit from further training and guidance. A procurement training programme is prepared on an annual basis to ensure that any knowledge gaps are addressed. Training sessions are advertised to staff using the Transport Scotland intranet pages as well as being highlighted at Procurement Group Meetings which are attended by senior management.
As Transport Scotland continues to adopt hybrid working, the procurement team have continued to host virtual training sessions with over 130 attendees over 21 sessions during the reporting period. This included procurement subjects such as the evaluation of tenders, identifying and dealing with a conflict of interest, procurement legislation and compliance, developing an effective procurement strategy, community benefits, supported businesses, Fair Work First, the role of the DPA holder, and procurement and the climate emergency.
Delivery sub-action 6.3
Work collaboratively across the organisation and wider public sector to share knowledge and best practice.
The Procurement Team supports project teams across Transport Scotland, working closely with project teams and DPA holders to ensure that procurements are undertaken in line with best practice. Our Procurement Group Meetings are attended by senior staff across the organisation on a quarterly basis, allowing the Procurement Team to share any new policies and procedures and discuss these with representatives from across the organisation.
Transport Scotland is an active member of the Scottish Government’s Procurement Collaboration Group and the Procurement Cluster Group, where there is the opportunity to share knowledge and best practice with others across the Scottish public procurement sector.
A member of the Transport Scotland Procurement Team was interviewed for Scottish Government research on Scotland’s Journey of Achieving Sustainable Procurement Outcomes 2002-2022: Independent Review, which was published in February 2023.
In addition, the Procurement team attend relevant conferences such as Procurex and the Roads Expo.
Delivery sub-action 6.4
Review procurement lessons learned feedback and ensure that procurement best practice is updated and disseminated.
Examples of best practice are recorded within our procurement lessons learned process every quarter are made available to project managers as they commence procurements. Where ‘worked well’ lessons have been identified, these are incorporated into our procurement guidance so that they can be applied to future procurements.