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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 23 December 2024
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Displaying 1041 contributions

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Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 1 May 2024

Kevin Stewart

Grand—I agree with that. That seems to happen in the Aberdeen scenario anyway. There was a great video of folks who had been through Project Search who gave their opinions about it, and it was fantastic to hear their experiences.

I want to move on to diversity, because we are living in a world with a huge amount of diverse jobs and we need a diverse workforce. We need employers to have not only a level of understanding of people, but flexibility. How can we ensure that employers become more flexible when it comes to employing neurodivergent people? What do you think could push them further?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 1 May 2024

Kevin Stewart

I will leave it at that. I hope that we will get that paper from Mr McCallum.

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Disability Employment Gap

Meeting date: 1 May 2024

Kevin Stewart

I am a carer positive employer. Would it be wise to establish a scheme—not a tick-box scheme, because I canna abide them—to award employers who have a positive approach to employing diverse people?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

I have a final brief question. All of this is about people and getting the best possible outcomes for them. We have heard about some of the work that has been undertaken to share best practice and the attempts to get rid of some of the risk aversion that still exists. Minister, would it be possible for you and your officials to provide some detail on what has gone on in that area over, say, the past year and give us a flavour of how you are going about that business?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

Let us move on to commissioning. We have heard from many people that good commissioning work can lead to very good outcomes, which is what we all want. However, we have been told that competitive public tenders are not necessarily the most appropriate vehicles for that commissioning work. We have also heard that there is a perception, when it comes to commissioning, that accountants and lawyers have more influence over the tender than the people on the front line who know what is required. Do you have any comment on that, minister?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

You said earlier—I agree with you, and I think that most of the committee would agree with you—that we have the legislation, but the difficulty is often implementation. Implementing what we want, which is good outcomes for all, is often hampered by risk aversion and a misreading of the legislation and guidance. How do we get over that?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

But some of it might not be down to that, which is what we are here to delve into.

Let us look at some of the things that are going on out there. Mr Cook said earlier that there are events and seminars to ensure that best practice is exported across the piece, where it can be. However, although we see things going on out there that are providing great outcomes for people, that is not happening in a lot of places, because it might be seen as being too risky.

Let me give an example that has been given in evidence on a number of occasions. It relates to social care in my home city of Aberdeen and the Granite Care Consortium. The commissioned work provides a lot of flexibility, with front-line workers having the ability, independence and autonomy to step up and step down care. The contract allows for that. If that were happening elsewhere in the country, folk would probably not be going into hospital unnecessarily on as many occasions. That practice has been picked up in certain other parts of the country, but not in many others. Why is that kind of procurement best practice not being exported across the board?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

I intend to ask some questions about commissioning, but the exchange just now has been interesting. This is the first that the committee has heard of a dynamic purchasing system, for example, which you say is different from a normal framework. If it is the first time that we have heard of it, how do folk out there who are trying to sell things keep up with all the tweaks and differences as they appear?

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

You kind of make my point for me. I will not go into the national care service in depth, as the convener will, I am sure, not allow me the time to do that, but the national care service is about uniformity, having the best standards possible for the best outcomes for people and creating a high-quality standard across the board. We are not there yet.

As I said, Mr Cook makes my point for me. People on the front line in Aberdeen came up with something different, and they have been allowed to go with it, whereas there has been risk aversion in other parts of the country, where folks on the front line have wanted a similar approach to that taken in Aberdeen, with flexibility, independence and autonomy, but they have been told no. The folks putting together the tenders and documents have said, “That’s not possible.”

Economy and Fair Work Committee

Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Post-legislative Scrutiny)

Meeting date: 17 April 2024

Kevin Stewart

That would certainly be useful for me, and I think that it would be useful for other members, too. Thank you.