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Procurement

The Scottish Social Services Council and Care Inspectorate Procurement Strategy April 2023-March 2026:

  • sets out our priorities and proposals for procurement over the planning period
  • identifies those factors that will influence the way in which we manage the procurement process
  • describes the arrangements for monitoring and evaluating the strategy.

Annual Procurement Report

We’ve published our progress towards achieving our strategic procurement priorities in our 2021/22 Annual Procurement Reports. This report also provides information on regulated procurement activity for 2021/22 and our planned procurement activity for the two year period 2022/24.

We publish our contracts register for all competitively advertised contracts exceeding £50,000 on the Public Contracts Scotland portal and high value tenders on the Public Contracts Scotland website. We encourage businesses to register for free on this site. It gives you access to a large number of public authority contract opportunities across Scotland. You can also view our profile.

We do not have an internal register of suppliers or approved supplier list.

Our conditions of contract

Conditions of contract for the purchase of goods

Conditions of contract for purchase of services

Conditions of contract for the supply of consultancy services

Conditions of contract for supply of goods and related services

Our procurement practices - values and promotion of tenders

Legislation and best practice guide our procurement activity with the route being determined by the potential total value of the contract.

Supplier opportunities, guidance and support - useful websites

There is a national Dynamic Purchasing System reserved for Supported Businesses in place to provide products and services to the Scottish public sector.

The Online Supplier Journey makes it easier for Scottish companies to bid for work in the public sector.

The website guides firms through each step in the process – setting out what to expect from buyers and what is expected of them, simplifying guidance, making it easier to understand. It is particularly useful for small businesses.

The Single Point of Enquiry is an independent, impartial and confidential service for suppliers to the public sector in Scotland. The service offers advice on the procurement rules which public bodies in Scotland must follow and information on how contracts are advertised and awarded.

Scottish Enterprise Net Zero Accelerator Tool – this is designed to help businesses work towards a net zero future using practical, inclusive and data-led solutions.

Supplier Development Programme

Scotland’s free tender training service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a programme of tender training events.

They hold free events and many of the courses are available online.

Find out more on the SDP website.

Supplier Cyber Security

Cyber-attacks (such as phishing, ransomware, hacking, etc.) are becoming an increasing threat to our economy and society. No internet-connected organisation, however large or small, is immune.

Cyber-attacks may be targeted at specific organisations or individuals, or untargeted, where attackers indiscriminately attack as many vulnerable machines or users connected to the internet as possible. These attacks are as real a risk to the small business that relies on a database of customers to distribute its goods as they are to multinational banking organisations.

As part of the Scottish Public Sector Action Plan on Cyber Resilience Scotland’s public sector organisations are encouraged to adopt a common approach to supplier cyber security. Links to authoritative sources of advice and support can be found at the Scottish Government Cyber Resilience website.

The NCSC’s small business and charities guides can be found at National Cyber Security Centre.

You can get a free digital health check and 1:1 support at Business Gateway's Digital Boost.