Chamber and committees

Does Heather Fisken want to comment on those issues?

Thank you.

I want to follow up on the question of funding and ask you the same question that I put to the earlier panel, on funding for employability programmes, which is something that came up on Monday in the committee’s visit to two social enterprises in Perth that work with young people with autism and with learning difficulties. The issue that came up was the lack of certainty over funding, as they were not getting their award letters until well into the financial year. If you heard the evidence from the previous witnesses, you will know that they confirmed that that was a pattern that they were very familiar with. According to the SPICe briefing for today’s meeting, the Scottish Government’s budget for the current year for employability is down 24 per cent in real terms compared to last year. What impact is that having on your ability to deliver services and how does the issue of year-to-year funding and short-termism impact on your ability to deliver?

Good morning. I will start by following up on Maggie Chapman’s question about funding. On Monday, the committee was in Perth, where we visited two excellent social enterprise projects that help young people with autism and learning difficulties to get into the workplace. It was very positive to see the outcomes from those projects. However, the people involved raised the issue of certainty of funding and—as Alasdair Scott touched on earlier—the difficulties that can be caused by the lack of such certainty year to year. Even worse than that, some weeks into the current financial year, some projects had still not received an award letter, which made it almost impossible to do any sensible forward planning.

The committee’s briefing from the Scottish Parliament information centre says that, in the Scottish Government’s budget for the current year, employability funding has been cut by 24 per cent in real terms, which is a very substantial cut. There is perhaps an expectation that local authorities will pick up the slack.

I am interested in your perspective on two issues. The first is about the impact that that cut will have on the overall quantum of employability funding, and the second is about future planning and certainty.

It seems extraordinary to me that, one month into the financial year, you still do not know what your funding settlement will be. I cannot imagine how impossible it is to plan ahead.

Philip Ritchie, you were nodding throughout that answer. Do you want to add anything?

Presumably, you benefit from being part of a large national organisation that has reserves, so you are not necessarily reliant on that very short-term funding, because you have something that you can fall back on.

I have a slightly different question, which is about the provision of feedback to unsuccessful bidders. We were told that small businesses can find it discouraging when they put a lot of work into submitting a bid, the bid is unsuccessful and they get very little feedback on how that bid might be improved for future bids. Do you have any thoughts on how that process could be improved?

That is helpful.

Thank you, convener, and good morning, minister. I apologise for being a few moments late at the start of the meeting—it was due to traffic.

We have taken quite a lot of evidence from the business community about some of the challenges that they face in accessing public sector contracts, and I want to ask a few questions in and around that particular space. First, we have heard about resource constraints being a key factor, particularly for the smallest businesses trying to engage with public procurement. The committee has heard that funding for support services such as the Supplier Development Programme has fallen in real terms. What more can be done to assist businesses, particularly the smallest ones, that want to access public contracts but are struggling to do so, because of a lack of resource?

Thanks for that. The minister mentioned the Public Contracts Scotland website. We have had some feedback that, although the portal is welcome, it is starting to feel dated and could be brought up to date. I know that there are plans potentially to retender and reinvent it, but what improvements would you like to see in a new portal to make it more user friendly?