The Power of Procurement in Action
With the current economic climate, good news is often in short supply, which is why we're delighted to share this Supported Business success story from Alistair Kerr, the BASE Scotland Chair. It's a fantastic evidenced based example of collaboration between Scottish Government Procurement, Scottish Prison Service Procurement, a Tier1 Construction Company & BASE Scotland Network, that cuts across a number of Scottish Government Policy intents supporting people living with disabilities or who are disadvantaged is some unique way to achieve individual goals and ambitions.
"In 2018/19 Morrison Construction were appointed by Scottish Prison Service to build the new Women’s National Facility (WNF) at Cornton Vale. This appointment led to some exciting opportunities to make an impact not only on the local community, and the community within the facility, but by creating a new way of engaging and generating opportunities and spend with supported businesses.
During a meeting between Scottish Prison Service and Morrison Construction we were introduced to Alistair Kerr from the British Association of Supported Employment (BASE) network and this led to some interesting discussions around how a tier 1 contractor could ensure opportunities and spend were being generated for supported businesses.
This led to the creation of the Morrison Construction Supported Procurement Group. The aim of this group was, in partnership with the BASE Network, that we would engage with a collective of supported businesses and explore and mentor them to be both tender and business ready to engage and receive packages of work from Morrison Construction. The group has worked through some challenging times, such as Covid-19, however a key outcome has been businesses now enjoying the benefits of working with a tier 1 contractor. To name but a few, this includes key procurement group partners such as: Community Focus Scotland CIC, Scotland's Bravest Manufacturing Co & NL Industries.
Since the inception of the group over £200,000 of spend has been generated on Morrison Construction projects for Supported Businesses, however, more importantly the development of the Group generates unrestricted income. This contributes to protecting and developing sustained employment opportunities for people living with disabilities, utilising the power of procurement policy ambitions employed within Scotland’s supported Businesses, including four new full time roles as part of the model at Cornton Vale.
This group continues to grow from strength to strength we are always looking at ways to increase the opportunities and spend can be generated for group members. As an example, we are looking at expanding the opportunities presented to the Procurement Group through incorporating our wider Supply Chain and encourage them to utilise the services of the Supported Business. This in turn, will maximise the outcomes and generate not just additional spend but also the creation of more jobs.
Morrison Construction strongly believe that they should leave a lasting legacy on the communities they touch but most importantly of all do the right thing to make that legacy have meaning and benefit. Through creating and fully supporting this Procurement Group they are delivering on these beliefs and contributing to Scottish Government Policy ambitions of halving the disability employment gap by utilising sustainable procurement duties with Scotland’s Supported Businesses and the BASE Network."
