Whilst an innovative solution is the objective of your procurement, the outcome must still:

• meet the minimum requirements set out in the tender documents; and
• be within the agreed performance levels and maximum costs.

You must set out in the Procurement Documents:

• the subject matter of the procurement by providing a description of your need;
• the minimum requirements;
• the award criteria; and
• the applicable intellectual property rights arrangements.

The information you provide must be precise enough to help potential partners identify the nature and scope of the requirement.  This will allow them to decide whether to request to participate in your procedure. However, you should to be careful not to restrict the innovative proposals with the requirements.

The only set timescales is the deadline for requests to participate which must be a minimum of 30 days after the Contract Notice is sent for publication. 

When fixing other time limits you should take account of the complexity of the contract and the time required for drawing up tenders.

You must permit any potential partner to submit a request to participate within the timescales you have set, answering your selection stage requirements.

The evaluation of the selection stage information may be more challenging than other procedures. You must, in particular, apply criteria concerning:

• the partner’s capacity in the field of research and development; and
• of developing and implementing innovative solutions. 

Only those invited by you may participate in the procedure and go on to submit research and innovation projects.

The Innovation Partnership must be structured in successive phases to reflect the research and development stages involved.  You must ensure the structure, duration and value of the partnership’s different phases reflect the degree of innovation of the proposed solution and the sequence of the research and innovation activities.  

You should set intermediate targets to be attained by the partners and provide for payment in appropriate instalments.

You must negotiate with partners over the initial and all subsequent tenders submitted, except for the final tender, to improve its content.  Minimum requirements and the award criteria must not be negotiated.

After each phase, you have the option to terminate the partnership or reduce the number of partners.  You can terminate individual contracts by applying the award criteria, provided that you have indicated such possibilities in the Procurement Documents.

You must evaluate the final solutions or terminate the contract.  The contract must be awarded on the sole basis of the best price-quality ratio.

You should not use Innovation Partnership in a way that prevents, restricts or distorts competition.

You may limit the number of candidates meeting the selection criteria. If you stated this was a possibility in the Contract Notice.

You should invite at least three bidders to participate (if three or more meet the selection criteria) in order to ensure genuine competition. You may also establish an innovation partnership with one or several partners conducting separate research and development activities.

For many care and support services contracts, an organisation may use the procurement procedures, tools and techniques of its choosing. You should follow a procurement procedure, as a matter of best practice, that is proportionate to the value of the contract and that takes account of some fundamental considerations (for example, the principles of procurement, and where relevant, Fair Work Practices).

When doing so, you may choose to adapt or streamline the Innovation Partnership Procedure described in the Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015. If you do so, you are not obliged to follow the detailed procedural requirements set out in those Regulations. You should therefore not refer to the Regulations in the tender documentation issued to participants, as this may create an expectation that the detailed procedural requirements will be followed. In all cases, you should ensure that the procurement process is described accurately and clearly, and then adhered to.

Organisations must ensure the equal treatment of all parties involved. Part of this requires that confidentiality must be maintained to prevent any distortion of competition.

Your Organisation must not reveal confidential information communicated by a party to another party without their express agreement. This permission may only be given with reference to the intended communication of specific information. 

You should also add a requirement to ensure your organisation’s confidential information is protected throughout the procurement process.

The activities you undertake at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that supports the Principles of Procurement. 

1. When fixing any time limits you must take account of the complexity of the contract.  A Contract Notice will not be published in this procedure. The only Procurement Documents which may be published would be a Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency (VEAT) Notice. Your Organisation can use a VEAT Notice to protect itself by sending it via Public Contracts Scotland prior to entering the contract.
2. It is still mandatory to publish a Contract Award Notice with this procedure.

This procedure can be used for goods:

• where the goods are manufactured purely for research, experimentation, study or development purposes.  This does not include quantity production to establish commercial viability or to recover research and development costs.  Note this should not be abused to allow a single supplier to be approached e.g. to design an item which must subsequently be purchased as a result of proprietary rights;
• where a change in supplier(s) would mean your Organisation would have compatibility issues or disproportionate technical difficulties. In such cases you can use NPwPP to buy additional deliveries from the original supplier. This is for replacing or increasing supplies or installations.  In this case, the contract or recurrent contract length must not exceed three years other than in exceptional circumstances;
• for supplies quoted and purchased on a commodity market; 
• for the purchase of supplies on particularly advantageous terms.  This can be from either a supplier definitively winding up its business activities, or the liquidator in:
  • an insolvency procedure;
  • an arrangement with creditors; or
  • a similar procedure under national laws or regulations.

Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication can be used for services:

• where the contract concerned follows a design contest (see below) organised in accordance with the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.  The contract concerned is to be awarded as part of the design contest to the winner or winners. if there is more than one winner of the design contest, all of them must be invited to participate in the negotiation; or
• in instances when all of the following apply:
  • for new services consisting of repetitive similar services performed by the supplier already awarded the original contract. In such cases the services must:
    • conform with the basic project for which the original contract was awarded
    • the original award included the extent of possible additional services and the conditions under which they would be awarded.
  • When the possible use of this procedure was disclosed in the Procurement Documents.  Also  the total estimated cost of subsequent services was taken into consideration by your Organisation when applying the thresholds in relation to the original contract; and
  • Not more than three years have elapsed following the conclusion of the original contract.

Design Contest

For many care and support services contracts, an Organisation may use the procurement procedures, tools and techniques of its choosing. You should follow a procurement procedure, as a matter of best practice, that is proportionate to the value of the contract and to take account of some fundamental considerations (for example, the principles of procurement and fair work practices).

When doing so, you may choose to adapt or streamline the Negotiated Procedure without Prior Publication described in the Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015. If you do so, you are not obliged to follow the detailed procedural requirements set out in those Regulations. You should therefore not refer to the Regulations in the tender documentation issued to participants, as this may create an expectation that the detailed procedural requirements will be followed. In all cases, you should ensure that the procurement process is described accurately and clearly, and then adhered to.

The activities at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that supports the Principles of Procurement. 

Advantages of Competitive Dialogue are:

• it allows organisations to clarify, specify or optimise the final bids
• your negotiations with your ultimate preferred bidder may also confirm financial commitments or other terms contained in the tender to finalise the contract.  This helps, for example, in situations where a preferred bidder needs to secure final planning permission for a project before the contract can be concluded.

Care should be taken before selecting this route:

• you must ensure that you legally satisfy the criteria of using Competitive Dialogue
• you should be aware that this process is costly and resource intensive for you and bidders
• this procedure is likely to result in a significant increase in procurement timescales.

You should publish your minimum requirements, award criteria and their weightings.  These cannot be changed during the negotiation process.  

If your process will be conducted in successive stages, this must be stated in the Contract Notice or descriptive document.

The day after the Contract Notice is sent for publication, at least 30 days must elapse before the closing date for receipt of selection stage information. 

Note that after this stage there are no further set minimum timescales for submissions, however timescales must be reasonable.  When fixing time limits, you must take account of the complexity of the contract and the time required for writing bids. You must set out an indicative timeframe in the Contract Notice and/or a descriptive document.

You must allow any bidder to submit a request to participate in response to a Contract Notice within the time limit set.

You then invite the selected candidates to participate in the dialogue, using an Invitation to Take Part in Dialogue (ITPD). There is no minimum period specified for bids in response to this document, but it must be reasonable. 

You may limit the number of suitable bidders who meet your selection criteria to be invited to participate in the procedure.  You should invite at least three bidders (if three or more meet selection criteria) to the dialogue process in order to ensure genuine competition.

Bidders do not submit tenders before starting dialogue with your Organisation.

Following this initial response, you may decide to have several stages of negotiations/dialogue in order to develop solutions and reduce the number of solutions (if indicated in the contract notice or the descriptive document).

If there are successive stages, you must ensure that in the final stage the number of solutions remaining make for genuine competition.  This means there must be enough solutions or qualified bidders. 

You can decide on the number of dialogue stages.   

You may reduce the number of bidders by applying the award criteria to suppliers’ proposals during multiple dialogue stages before using the criteria again to assess bidders’ final bids.

During the dialogue, Organisations must ensure equal treatment of all participants. 

Any clarifications, specification, optimisation, additional information or negotiations must not involve changes to the essential aspects of the tender.  You must not provide information in a discriminatory manner which may give any bidder an advantage over others.

You must inform all bidders when the dialogue is being concluded.

You must invite each remaining bidder to submit their final tender on the basis of the solution(s) presented and specified during the dialogue.

After the Invitations to Submit Final Tenders are sent out, you must set a deadline for receipt of final tenders. There is no minimum period specified but these must be proportionate by taking into account the contract complexity and the time required to prepare and submit a bid.

You must extend the time limits for the receipt of tenders so that all bidders concerned are aware of all of the information needed to produce tenders e.g. where additional information has been requested by a supplier in good time and is not supplied at least six days before the time limit fixed for the receipt of tenders, or where there are significant changes made to the procurement documents. 

The length of extension must be proportionate to the importance of the information or change.

Final tenders may be further clarified before award of the contract, but this must not involve the essential aspects, cause discrimination, or distort competition.  You apply the award criteria to assess bidders’ final bids and award the contract.

For many care and support services contracts, an organisation may use the procurement procedures, tools and techniques of its choosing. You should follow a procurement procedure, as a matter of best practice, that is proportionate to the value of the contract and to take account of some fundamental considerations (for example, the Principles of Procurement and Fair Work Practices).

When doing so, you may choose to adapt or streamline the Competitive Dialogue procedure described in the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015. If you do so, you are not obliged to follow the detailed procedural requirements set out in those Regulations. You should therefore not refer to the Regulations in the tender documentation issued to participants, as this may create an expectation that the detailed procedural requirements will be followed. In all cases, you should ensure that the procurement process is described accurately and clearly and then adhered to.

You can use Competitive Dialogue where all of the submissions you have received for an Open or Restricted Procedure are classed as either irregular or unacceptable.

A tender is irregular where:

• it does not comply with the Procurement Documents
• it was received late
• there is evidence of collusion or corruption
• it has been found by you to be abnormally low

A tender is unacceptable where:

• it was submitted by a bidder that does not have the required qualifications; or
• the price tendered exceeds your Organisation’s budget (as determined and documented before the Procurement Procedure started.

You may authorise or require variant bids. However this must be specified in the Contract Notice.

Your Procurement Documents must set out the minimum requirements and how the variant will be evaluated. Variants cannot be considered unless:

• they are specified within your Procurement Documents
• they are linked to the subject matter of the contract
• they meet the minimum requirements.

All variant bids should be evaluated using the same criteria as the standard bids and compared on a like-for-like basis.

You should also consider whether to allow potential bidders to offer different TUPE scenario options within their bids. If so, you must provide clear directions to bidders to ensure that bids are compared on a like-for-like basis.

The Invitation to Submit a Final Tender is a procurement document that can only be finalised in the course of the actual dialogue.  As a result it does not need to be made available at the same time as the Contract Notice.

The procurement documentation relevant to the first part of the procedure (up to and including the Invitation to Take part in Dialogue (ITPDs) must be made available:

• through the internet
• for free
• simultaneously
• by electronic means
• include all ITT documents (unless exclusions apply, for example confidentiality) when the Contract Notice is published. In such cases another, non-internet method must be used to provide the information.

The activities you undertake at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that supports the Principles of Procurement.

For many care and support services contract, an organisation may use the procurement procedures, tools and techniques of its choosing. You should follow a procurement procedure, as a matter of best practice, that is proportionate to the value of the contract and to take account of some fundamental considerations (for example, the Principles of Procurement and Fair Work Practices).

When doing so, you may choose to adapt or streamline the Competitive Procedure with Negotiation described in the Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015. If you do so, you are not obliged to follow the detailed procedural requirements set out in those Regulations. You should therefore not refer to the Regulations in the tender documentation issued to participants, as this may create an expectation that the detailed procedural requirements will be followed. In all cases, you should ensure that the procurement process is described accurately and clearly, and then adhered to.

You may authorise or require variant bids.  However this must have been specified:

• in the Contract Notice 
• where a PIN is used in the invitation to confirm interest. 

The Procurement Documents must set out the minimum requirements and how any variant will be evaluated. Variants cannot be considered unless this has been done, they are linked to the subject matter and they meet the minimum requirements.

Where it is relevant, you should also consider whether to allow bidders to set out different TUPE scenarios within their bids. If you elect to include this in your tender, you should provide clear directions to tenderers to ensure that bids can be compared on a like-for-like basis.

All variant bids should be evaluated using the same criteria as the standard bids and compared on a like-for-like basis.

You may authorise or require variants on the contract requirements, as long as it has been specified:

• in the Contract Notice; or
• You may authorise or require variant bids.  However this must have been specified in the Contract Notice.  

The Procurement Documents must set out the minimum requirements and how any variant will be evaluated. Variants cannot be considered unless this has been done, they are linked to the subject matter and they meet the minimum requirements.

Where it is relevant, you should also consider whether to allow bidders to set out different TUPE scenarios within their bids. If you elect to include this in your tender, you should provide clear directions to tenderers to ensure that bids can be compared on a like-for-like basis.

All variant bids should be evaluated using the same criteria as the standard bids and compared on a like-for-like basis.

Since your final documents may be dependent upon the negotiations held, it is not practical to expect you to publish all Procurement Documents with the Contract Notice.

Invitations to Tender (ITT) should be sent to all selected bidders:

• for free
• simultaneously
• in writing;
• by electronic means
• include all ITT documents (unless exclusions apply, for example confidentiality).

As per the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, The minimum number of bidders is 3.

If an ITT is issued near to the closing date, bidders should be made aware that the submission date is imminent.

The ITT time limits for receipt of tender submissions should be proportionate to the contract complexity and the time required to prepare and submit a bid (bearing in mind minimum requirements).

As per The Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015, your Organisation must extend the time limits for the receipt of tenders so that all bidders are aware of all of the information needed.  When:    

• additional information has been requested by a bidder in good time and not supplied at least 6 days (or 4 days in accelerated procedures) before the receipt of tenders deadline or
• where there are significant changes made to the procurement documents.

Any extension should be proportionate to the complexity of the change and /or the additional information being provided.

To proceed with a tender extension the necessary approval should be obtained in accordance with your internal governance.

If the date is amended, the new date should be notified to all bidders.  If any tenderer indicates that they have already submitted a tender, they should be able to withdraw their original bid and submit a revised one (in line with the extended tender deadline).

Care must be taken to guard against fraud.  A full audit trail must be documented to ensure no information is passed to a bidder, allowing them to amend bids already seen by the Organisation.

The activities you undertake at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that supports the Principles of Procurement.

For many care and support services contracts, an organisation may use the procurement procedures, tools and techniques of its choosing.  You should follow a procurement procedure, as a matter of best practice, that is proportionate to the value of the contract and to take account of some fundamental considerations (for example, the Principles of Procurement and Fair Work Practices).

When doing so, you may choose to adapt or streamline the Restricted Procedure described in the Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015. If you do so, you are not obliged to follow the detailed procedural requirements set out in those Regulations. You should therefore not refer to the Regulations in the tender documentation issued to participants, as this may create an expectation that the detailed procedural requirements will be followed. In all cases, you should ensure that the procurement process is described accurately and clearly, and then adhered to.

Stage 1

Selection Stage

• Following a call for competition, any bidder may submit a request to participate.
• Buyers must issue a Single Procurement Document (SPD) for procurement exercises over the threshold (route 3) and it is recommended that it is also used for all route 2 procurements. The Selection stage evaluates the bidder's capacity and capability, not how the bidder will deliver the requirement. Therefore, this is a backward-looking process i.e. you cannot consider matters specific to performance of the contract at this stage.
• You must state in the Contract Notice or in the Invitation to Confirm Interest:
  • your objective and non-discriminatory criteria or rules that you intend to apply; and
  • the minimum number of bidders that you intend to invite and, where applicable, the maximum number.
• Timescales to consider: bidders must be given a minimum of 30 days (from the day the Contract Notice is sent for publication) to respond to a call for competition (or 25 days where the organisation has indicated that it will accept an electronic submission).

Stage 2

Invitation to Tender (ITT) Stage:

• The minimum number of bidders is five and
• the number of candidates invited must be sufficient to ensure genuine competition.  Note: if the number of bidders meeting the selection criteria is fewer than five the procurement can still proceed. 
• You must issue ITT documents for completion by bidders successful at the Stage 1 selection stage
• Timescales to consider: bidders must be given a minimum 30 days to respond to the ITT (or 25 days where the organisation has indicated that it will accept an electronic submission).

Bidders must be given a minimum of 30 days (from the day the Contract Notice is sent for publication) to respond to a call for competition (or 25 days where the organisation has indicated that it will accept an electronic submission).

Sub-central buyer organisations may set the time limit for the receipt of tenders.  However this must be done by agreement with the bidders successful at selection stage.  The same time limit must be applied to all bidders.

Where a time limit cannot be agreed a minimum of 10 days must elapse between despatching the ITT and the deadline for submission.

Note: A sub-central buyer organisations is any Organisation which does not belong to Central Government or National Health Services.

• Organisations can choose to use a Prior Information Notice (PIN) to shorten the time period for the receipt of tenders.
• If using a PIN a minimum of 10 days needs to elapse after the dispatch of the ITT before the closing date for the receipt of tenders if:
• the PIN includes certain information required for the Contract Notice, if  it is available when the PIN is published; and
• the PIN is sent for publication between 35 days and 12 months before the Contract Notice is published.

Organisations are allowed to shorten certain deadlines in case of urgency. 

• Urgency needs to be suitably justified. This need not be an extreme urgency from unforeseen events  and/or not caused by your Organisation. 
• Your contract notice must include justification.
• After the despatch of your Contract Notice, you need to allow at least 15 days for the submission deadline of selection stage information.
• Following the completion of your selection stage assessment you may despatch the ITT.
• A minimum of 10 days must then be allowed before the submission deadline.
• Sub-central Organisations may agree on the submission deadline with bidders. If there is no agreement, a minimum of 10 days must be allowed by you for the submission of tenders

In a Restricted Procedure, it is not necessary to make all procurement documentation available when the Contract Notice is published.

It is necessary that your organisation provides sufficiently precise information to allow bidders to identify the nature and scope of the requirement.  From this information the bidders will decide whether to express an interest to participate i.e.. it is essential that the SPD (Scotland) is used and is available when the Contract Notice is published.

All Procurement Documents should be made available via the internet with free and unrestricted access. If exceptions apply, which mean that the Procurement Documents cannot be issued electronically, the Contract Notice must detail how the Procurement Documents will be made available.

If the documents cannot be accessed immediately by electronic means, then the timescales should be extended by five days.  The exception is in a case of duly substantiated urgency.

The ITT time limits (for receipt of bidder tender submissions)  should be proportionate to the contract complexity and the time required to prepare and submit a bid.  You must take into account the minimum requirements when setting this time limit.

Time limits for the receipt of tenders must be extended:

• if you significantly change the procurement documents;
• where additional information requested by a bidder in good time  is not supplied at least six days (or four days in accelerated procedures) before the time limit of the receipt of tenders.

The length of extension of a tender deadline should be proportionate to the complexity of the change and/or the additional information being provided.

To proceed with a tender extension the necessary approval should be obtained in accordance with your internal governance procedures.

If the date is amended, the new date should be notified to all tenderers. If any tenderer has already submitted a bid then they should be given the opportunity to withdraw their original bid and submit a revised one.  This revised bid should meet the extended tender deadline.

You cannot negotiate on fundamental aspects of contracts i.e. areas likely to distort competition such as price.

Dialogue with bidders should be limited to requests for clarification.

You should record any discussions with bidders.  Meetings which discuss proposals/requirements should be avoided as these may distort competition.  For more information please refer to Post Tender Clarification.

The activities at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that supports the Principles of Procurement.

For many care and support services contracts, an Organisation may use the procurement procedures and tools and techniques of its choosing.  You should follow a procurement procedure, as a matter of best practice, that is proportionate to the value of the contract and to take account of some fundamental considerations e.g. the Principles of Procurement and Fair Work Practices.

When doing so you may choose to adapt or streamline the Open Procedure described in The Public Contract (Scotland) Regulations 2015.  If you do so, you are not obliged to follow the detailed procedural requirements set out in those Regulations.  You should therefore not refer to the Regulations in the tender documentation issued to participants; this may create an expectation that the detailed procedural requirements will be followed.  In all cases you should ensure that the procurement process is described accurately and clearly and is adhered to.

The selection and award criteria must be developed and managed separately. It is however possible for you to conduct these stages simultaneously or in any order where the procedure allows. 

For instance, when using the Open Procedure you may assess the tenders (award stage) prior to checking minimum criteria are met. This should only be done if a small number of bids have been received.  You must still verify exclusion grounds and that the bids meet the selection criteria.

This evaluation needs to be carried out in an impartial and transparent manner.  No contract can be awarded to a bidder that should have been excluded or does not meet the selection criteria.

After despatching the contract notice, at least 35 days must elapse before the tender closing date. Where tenders may be submitted electronically, the number of days decreases to 30.

Your Organisation may publicise their future, planned procurement exercises by publishing a Prior Information Notice (PIN) on Public Contracts Scotland (PCS). However publishing a PIN does reduce your tender timescales later on.  If using a PIN, only a minimum of 15 days need to elapse after the dispatch of the Contract Notice before the tender closing date if:

• the PIN includes certain information required for the contract notice (if it is available when the PIN is published); and

• the PIN is sent for publication between 35 days and 12 months before the contract notice is sent.

Your Invitation to Tender (ITT) time limits for the receipt of bids should be long enough and reasonable for the bidders to tender, taking into account:

• the contract complexity; and

• the time required to prepare and submit a bid.

Extending or Changing a Tender Deadline

Changes to a tender closing date must be made if:

• significant changes are made to the Procurement Documents; and/or

• if information requested by a bidder (in a timely fashion) has not been supplied - a minimum of six days before the tender deadline (or 4 days in accelerated procedures). 

Extending a tender deadline should be proportionate to the complexity of the change and /or the additional information being provided. 

To proceed with a tender extension, the necessary approval must be obtained in accordance with your internal governance procedures.

If the date is amended, the new date should be notified to all bidders. If any bidder has already submitted a bid, they should be given the opportunity to withdraw their original bid and submit a revised one (in line with the extended tender deadline).

Urgency

Organisations are allowed to shorten certain deadlines in case of urgency. This needs to be suitably justified.

To use this procedure, you must provide a justification in the contract notice. The need must be genuinely urgent (e.g. a matter of safety) and it must have been caused by unforeseeable events and/or not your Organisation’s fault.

If your Organisation can appropriately justify urgency, the closing date for receipt of tenders can be 15 days after the contract notice was sent for publication.

Given the shortened timescales for this procedure you must make the Invitation to Tender (ITT) available from the start of the procurement i.e. when the contract notice is published.

If you decide to use an Open Procedure, you must provide full information about the requirements and qualitative selection process. The ITT documents must be issued to all bidders that request them.

All Procurement Documents, including the ITT, must be made available:

• for free direct download;

• from the internet;

• from the time they are sent to participants in the process; and

• with unrestricted access. 

The contract notice must specify the internet address at which the Procurement Documents can be accessed. 

If exceptions apply, which mean the Procurement Documents are not available electronically, the contract notice must detail how access can be achieved.  Timescales must be extended by five days if the documents cannot be accessed immediately by electronic means. An exception is  in a case of a substantiated urgency.

The Open Procedure allows for ITTs to be issued on request at any point prior to the date set for submission of tenders.

When an ITT is issued near to the closing date, the recipient should be made aware that the submission date is imminent.

You can clarify some aspects of the tender. You cannot clarify fundamental aspects where any changes may distort competition or cause discrimination.

Any discussions you have with bidders should be properly recorded. Meetings which discuss proposals/requirements in any detail should be avoided as they may distort competition. For more information, please refer to Post Tender Clarification.

The activities at this stage must be carried out in a carefully managed manner that supports the Principles of Procurement.  

Please consider Strategic and Public Social Partnerships; further information is provided below.

Additional guidance on determining the type and duration of the contract, and on transitional arrangements can be found in the Care and Support Services Contract Type, Duration and Transitional Arrangements.

As with other stages of a procurement exercise, you must consider conflicts of interest and fraud as part of the Commodity/service strategy stage. This must be in line with relevant procurement legislation and your Organisation’s own governance procedures. 

You must ensure that you take all appropriate measures to prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest. You must include measures to combat fraud throughout your procurement exercise. 

Your Organisation may seek a long-term strategic partner or partners  e.g. for a period of 10 or 20 years.  This may be to redesign and achieve major changes in service delivery and/or the use of resources.

For example, your Organisation may work with a supplier(s) to determine what range of services could be provided within available resources.  This would be instead of tendering for particular services. In this situation, the choice of strategic partner(s) should be transparent and through a competitive process in accordance with the public procurement rules.

PSPs are strategic partnering arrangements.  These are based on a co-planning approach where the public sector can work with third sector organisations.  In such cases you would share responsibility for designing services based around service user needs.

The Scottish Government has published guidance on developing and running Public-Social Partnerships..

A PSP typically comprises three stages:

• third sector organisations work with public purchasers to design a service;
• a consortium of third sector organisations(which may also involve the public sector) conduct a short-term pilot.  This helps to refine service delivery limits and maximise community benefits; and
• if the service is deemed successful, commissioners then consider the most appropriate approach to sustaining the PSP. This could involve a competitive tendering process but other methods of securing service delivery should also be considered.

You should also consider the current and possible future relationships between the Public Body and the Supplier. You should demonstrate how you intend to develop any relationship with a potential supplier going forward.

If you are entering a joint procurement exercise with one or more public sector organisations, you must agree the legal status  and requirements of such an exercise at this stage. 

You Organisation may either:

• agree a “lead” authority at this stage.  Legally, this lead authority will be the organisation responsible for forming the contract with the successful supplier(s), or
• enter a truly “joint” exercise.  This is where the conduct of the procurement is carried out in the joint name(s) of the participating organisations. 

In either of the above cases, the organisations are jointly responsible for ensuring they comply with all relevant procurement legislation.

Sometimes you could consider having only part of the procurement operating as a joint exercise.  In such cases the organisations would be equally responsible for any joint  areas. and retain sole responsibility for their own areas.

Having considered the previous points you can identify the position of your commodity/service as either Leverage, Strategic, Routine or Bottleneck. The Strategic Positioning Action Plan provides guidance as to the procurement approach you should adopt in each of these circumstances.

These suggested approaches  provide a starting point on how to proceed with your commodity/service. You must define these further still by looking at your specific commodity/service and the opportunities already identified using the Best Value Triangle.

In line with Statutory Guidance before starting your procurement you should consider whether Fair Work Practices are relevant and proportionate.  If so, you should include a question/questions on Fair Work, to be evaluated along with other relevant criteria. Your question(s) should be informed by the results of your pre-market engagement.

In line with Statutory Guidance, published under the Act, you should consider including a statement in your strategy outlining your commitment to implementing Fair Work First. The statement should highlight a range of approaches that you may use to promote Fair Work First. That strategy must include a statement on your general policy on the payment of a living wage to those delivering contracts where the value of your regulated contracts in a year will be equal to or greater than £5,000,000.

By reporting and monitoring the delivery of intended sustainable outcomes, such as Fair Work First, you can more easily demonstrate how you are complying with the Sustainable Procurement Duty.         

Organisations must determine if data processing activities are relevant to the commodity/service which is the subject of the procurement exercise.

Organisations must ensure that current and future procurement exercises (including contracts entered into before the legislation came into force) are compliant with GDPR and all relevant procurement documents make reference to the new legislation.

More detailed information on GDPR can found in Leadership & Governance.

Cyber Risks

If the contract will involve, support or rely on the digital processing of information, organisations should ensure that appropriate consideration is given to potential cyber risks and their management.

Further information on how to assess and manage cyber risks as part of the procurement process can be found in the Scottish public sector Guidance Note on Supplier Cyber Security. Buyers should assess cyber risks and develop minimum cyber security requirements as part of award criteria, if necessary. 

You should consider how you will ensure compliance to the contract.

Compliance is required from all parties throughout the whole Procurement Journey. Governance arrangements, management and budget holder behaviours  are key to ensuring compliance.

The Components of a Compliance Strategy document should encourage maximum uptake of a new contract. Members of the User Intelligence Group (UIG) should champion the contract.  Commitment from users should be obtained for the proposed strategy options.

There will be a number of potential options which are applicable to any commodity/service. These will vary with the type, size and complexity of the requirement.

In all cases, you should consider a 'Do Nothing' option as a benchmark.

The Commodity/Service strategy should include a summary of options that clearly details the:

• benefits,
• costs and
• risks

associated with each option.  These should demonstrate compliance with any legal obligations. This should help the selection of the required Commodity/Service Strategy option to be pursued in the short, medium and long term.

Estimated benefits within a commodity/service area can be obtained from sources such as:

• benchmarking,
• market testing,
• market trends,
• past discounts and 
• previous experience. 

Identification and assessment of “softer” benefits should be undertaken at this stage. 

Costs to implement sourcing strategies include:

• contract switching costs,
• supplier switching costs,
• resource investment,
• communications and roll out and
• cost of going to tender

The Options Appraisal summarises the various delivery options, considering the benefits and risks of each before selecting an option for recommendation.

The recommended option must satisfactorily meet the requirements, be affordable, viable and agreed with the UIG.

You must consider awarding your contract in separate lots. Division into lots can increase SME participation. 

Where you decide not to award a contract in the form of lots, you must indicate the main reasons for not doing so.  These reasons must be included in the relevant Procurement Documents, or in the procurement exercise written report.

Potential reasons for not subdividing contracts into lots may be:

• that it would risk restricting competition,
• it would make contract execution  excessively technically difficult or expensive, or
• the need to coordinate the different contractors for the lots could seriously risk undermining the proper execution of the contract.

You must  state in the relevant Procurement Documents, whether bids may be submitted for one, for several or for  all lots. Where more than one lot may be awarded to the same bidder contracts may be awarded that combine several or all lots. You must have specified this can happen and include the groups of lots that may be combined.  If you use this approach, you must think carefully about how the relevant evaluation matrices will assess all possible scenarios.

You can limit the number of lots that any one bidder can win.  To do so you must state the maximum number of lots per bidder in the relevant Procurement Documents. 

Where the application of the award criteria would result in one bidder being awarded more lots than the maximum number of lots per bidder, the Organisation would then apply the objective and non-discriminatory criteria or rules which must be indicated in the relevant Procurement Documents.

During the Profiling the Commodity stage of your procurement exercise, you should have considered whether bidders may sub-contract any of the awarded works or services. If so, question 4.C.4 from the SPD should be included to be evaluated alongside other criteria at selection stage.

Confirmation of how bidders will ensure payment of sub-contractors at all stages of the supply chain pertaining to the contract, within the standard 30 day payment terms and how this will be managed should be evaluated at award stage.

There are separate stops on the Procurement Journey on Contract Mobilisation and Implementation and Contract and Supplier Management (C&SM).Your approach must be considered during this 'Develop Commodity/Service Strategy' phase.

You must consider how the proposed options will operate throughout the life of the requirement. For example, if you decide to use an existing contract or framework agreement the contract implementation and management will be covered in the framework terms and conditions.  These must be complied with in full.

You must think about how the new goods or services will be introduced into your organisation.  Also how will  you move from your existing arrangements to the new arrangements?

You should also consider your transition or exit strategy for when this new contract or framework agreement comes to an end.

Once fully operational you should manage and develop the contract and supplier(s) to ensure  the contract requirements are met now, and in the future.

You must consider the resources required to implement and manage the contract or framework agreement. A designated contract manager should be identified. Additional guidance can be found in the Planning & Governance station.

You should detail the CSM requirements in the contract or framework agreement terms and conditions.  This will ensure both parties are clear on their contractual obligations. The contract should then be managed in accordance with these terms and conditions.

The level of CSM required depends on the risk, value and complexity of the contract. You will find guidance to help assess the potential level management of CSM required in the Contract and Supplier Management / Planning and Governance station.

Generally, "Routine" contracts will require a lower level of management than "Leverage" and "Bottleneck" (medium level), and "Strategic" which will require the highest level.

There may be opportunities for your organisation to make its own internal processes more efficient. Some of the key areas to consider during the procurement process are:

• Use of PCS-Tender
• The transactional procurement process: requisitioning, authorising, raising and sending purchase orders, goods receipting, invoicing and payment

Further guidance can be found in the Planning & Governance station.  

For additional guidance for Care and Support Services see Benefits and Risks to People who use Services and Service Delivery below.