Staff teams across Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and Glasgow City Council have been assessed as ‘Advanced’ in all 11 categories of the Procurement Commercial and Improvement Programme (PCIP), the highest level available.

The HSCP’s procurement of social care services is undertaken by our commissioning teams led by Geri McCormick, our HSCP’s Head of Commissioning.  The contracting authority is Glasgow City Council and Geri’s team work very closely with colleagues in the Corporate Procurement Unit to ensure that improvements in our practice are aligned to Glasgow’s Sustainable Procurement Strategy.

The range of categories used in the PCIP demonstrate the complexity and breadth of work undertaken in the commissioning of social care services.  In the planning stages this includes working with colleagues across the HSCP on proposals for new or replacement services, determining the best ‘route to market, and developing the evaluation approach.  During the tender process itself there’s a high degree of technical and legal input to ensure the final contract award is compliant and meets the outcomes and needs of people using the service.  Post award, the commissioning team oversee all aspects of contract management, working with various teams if issues arise, for example public protection, finance, property and business continuity.

Geri said: “The procurement of social care services requires to be compliant with a range of legislative duties, industry guidance and best practice.  The continuous improvement of procurement practice is measured through, an evidence-based assessment around a series of set questions in 11 categories.

“The PCIP assessment for Glasgow City Council / HSCP was undertaken over a full day at the end of February after weeks of gathering evidence.  As many will know, this evidence gathering phase involves a tremendous effort from colleagues across multiple teams.  For the PCIP assessment this included other HSCP colleagues in Finance and Business Development, and across the Council in the Climate Change Team, Health and Safety, Legal, Risk and Insurance. 

“Congratulations and thank you to all staff for your contribution to this work and for the examples given which meant that we achieved this outcome - they gave a real live demonstration of the work we do on a daily basis, and also set out the enhancements our improvement journey is bringing to us as Glasgow HSCP’s Commissioning Team.”