Scottish Government

Executive Summary

The purpose of this consultation exercise is to seek comments on draft guidance on social care procurement which has been prepared by the Joint Improvement Team and Scottish Procurement Directorate in consultation with a Reference Group of key stakeholders.

The draft guidance has been informed by a programme of activity which has involved: national surveys of local authorities and service providers; meetings with local authorities, service providers, service users and carers and regulatory bodies; and consultation with members of the Reference Group. Once finalised, the guidance will be supplemented by good practice information, the collation of which is ongoing.

The draft guidance provides a framework for social care procurement in Scotland. It outlines the legislative and policy context and provides guidance on useful ways to structure and conduct social care procurement activity. It also defines a set of "Guiding Principles" which should govern the procurement of social care services in Scotland.

We would be grateful for comments on the draft guidance. A summary of the draft guidance, an easy read consultation document and a presentation on service user and carer involvement in social care procurement are also available on the Scottish Government's website.

Responding to the consultation

The Joint Improvement Team and Scottish Procurement Directorate welcomes input by 5 April 2010. Comments can be submitted by e-mail to: socialcareprocurement@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

or by post to:

Alex Bell

We would be grateful if respondents could quote the section number to which their comments relate as this will aid our analysis of the responses we receive. To ensure that we treat your response appropriately, please also complete and return the Respondent Information Form.

This consultation, and all other Scottish Government consultation exercises, can be viewed online on the consultation web pages of the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/Current. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet access point is.

The Scottish Government now has an email alert system for consultations ( www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/seConsult). This system allows stakeholder individuals and organisations to register and receive a weekly email containing details of all new consultations (including web links). SEconsult is designed to allow stakeholders to keep up to date with all Scottish Government consultation activity, and therefore be alerted at the earliest opportunity to those of most interest. We would encourage you to register.

Handling your response

If you ask for your response not to be published we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly. All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, these will be made available to the public in the Scottish Government Library by 3 May and published on the Scottish Government consultation web pages by 11 May 2010.

What happens next?

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us to finalise the guidance. We aim to issue a report on this consultation process by 29 June 2010.

Comments or complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to:

Alex Bell

or e-mail alex.bell@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

Note: this consultation paper is a working document. Text may be modified as a result of responses to the consultation exercise, so should not be taken to reflect the final position.