I will make a few points and then maybe invite Victoria Barby in. First, we see procurement as a central and integral part of our approach, underpinned by our responsible procurement strategy, which dates back to about 2009.
More recently, we have a sustainable procurement matrix, which guides us through any procurement, for example by asking whether we need to buy it—a bit like reduce, reuse, recycle, the first thing to ask is whether we need to buy something at all. Therefore, that is embedded right from the beginning of the procurement process.
Assuming that we get through to the actual point of procurement, there is all sorts of guidance along the way. Alongside that, one of the things that we have found helpful in addressing your point about smaller organisations is the successful meet-the-buyer events that we run. One of the big challenges for smaller businesses is just being aware of procurement opportunities—smaller businesses do not necessarily have the departments that bigger companies have that look out for those opportunities.
We will continue with those initiatives and, again, if members know of particular businesses or others who are not finding or engaging with us, that is really good feedback for us. What we would do is bring them in informally. As you know, the procurement process gets rather formal rather quickly and that is not something that we can change. Therefore, we try to have informal front-ends so that businesses can come in to have informal discussions with colleagues in either facilities management or procurement. Often, we can give them guidance on how best to pitch for the business.
We can also listen to them. A critical issue that is not easy to resolve is how to package up procurement. Obviously, there is always a drive to get better value for money and, as accountable officer, I have to do that and, sometimes, we do just get economies. On the other hand, we are absolutely committed to trying to give as many businesses as possible, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, an opportunity. There is a balance to strike, so we have structural decisions to make and we can do a lot to encourage businesses to get involved in that process.
We are finding that the procurement matrix, which is a government tool, puts a really helpful discipline on us as we go through the steps. It also tackles issues such as the living wage and others that come off the back of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.
That is our basic approach, but Victoria Barby might want to add a bit more to that.