Legal and Policy Context
Policy - By making sure your procurement activities meet your health and safety obligations, you are contributing to the delivery of national outcomes and indicators within the National Performance Framework.
Legal - The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires a contracting authority to set out in their procurement strategy their general policy on how it intends its approach to regulated procurements involving the provision of food to improve the health, wellbeing and education of communities in the authority’s area.
Introduction
User health and well-being are potentially impacted by a range of products and services procured by the public sector. Most obvious are care services for adults and children but other services and products are also relevant in this consideration, including food and catering services, cleaning, use of technology and transport. The buyer must carefully consider potential positive and negative impacts that may arise as a consequence of procurement decisions and will need to be satisfied that the chosen supplier can perform the contract in a manner that provides the best possible outcomes while providing value for money.
Possibly the key action to take, to both mitigate risks and maximise opportunities, is in how the requirement is framed and an assessment of the possible solutions. Decisions at the design stage of the product or service need will significantly influence potential outcomes.
In relevant contracts, it is possible to include user enhancement requirements throughout the procurement process, including:
1. in the contract notice;
2. in technical specifications, (that can include the method of production or provision of the requested goods, works or services);
3. as part of supplier selection;
4. in award criteria that can include social and environmental characteristics; and
5. in the contract award notice
This document provides guidance on how to apply user enhancement requirements at each stage of the procurement process.