Sustainable Procurement Tools

Training and skills development key performance indicators (KPIs) need to be developed to ensure delivery in line with contract requirements.

Any contracting authority which is required by the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 to produce and publish an annual procurement report must include a summary of any community benefit requirements imposed as part of a regulated procurement that were fulfilled during the year covered by the report. 

As a subset of sustainable procurement, contracting authorities may wish to collect a wider range of data to demonstrate how community benefits in their contracts contribute to compliance with the sustainable procurement duty. Suggested KPIs for community benefits are included below: 

Key contract information

  • total value of contract
  • total value sub-contracted
  • total value sub-contracted to SMEs 
  • total value sub-contracted to social enterprises

 Community benefit requirement indicators

  • total number recruited to deliver contract
  • number of jobs filled by priority groups 
  • total number of apprenticeships recruited to deliver contract
  • number of apprenticeships filled by priority groups
  • number of work placements for school pupils, college and university students
  • number of work placements for priority groups
  • number of qualifications achieved through training by priority groups 
  • number of qualifications achieved through training by other employees 
  • community engagement activities

Paragraph 8 of the statutory guidance provides further information.

Contractual requirement must be quantifiable and measureable; otherwise there is a risk that it may be unenforceable. The buyer must also consider whether this requirement is core to the contract or a secondary issue, as any remedy for breach of performance may be difficult to quantify. 

At the point of potential award there is always scope to reach a voluntary agreement with the supplier that they will work with you to deliver identified (and agreed) sustainable outcomes that can be captured as a contract commitment. Ongoing improvement and innovation can also be built into the management of the contract to further develop the products and services required.