Welcome to this Special Edition of the Employability in Scotland e-bulletin
Last month saw the Minister for Employability and Training announce detail of our 12 month transitional arrangements, Work First Scotland and Work Able Scotland, ahead of a full Scottish programme of employment support commencing from April 2018.
As you know, it is our ambition to provide a Scottish Programme of employment support from April 2018 that will focus on helping people with disabilities and those most disadvantaged in the labour market move into and sustain fair work. The aim is to create a programme that is flexible, tailored and responsive to needs of individuals while supporting Scottish Government ambitions for sustainable economic growth, social justice, inclusion and fair work.
We are now delighted to announce that on 20th October, the Scottish Government published a Prior Information Notice inviting organisations to register their interest in attending supplier briefing events in November and December.
You will find further information on the Public Contracts Scotland website, including links for each briefing event, so that you can book a place if you are interested in coming along.
These events will provide the opportunity for attendees to network with potential delivery partners and will be held on a "without commitment" basis i.e. attendance or non-attendance will have no bearing on supplier evaluation or selection. However, the learning from these meetings may help to further shape our requirement prior to the start of the formal advertising and competitive tendering process which we expect to be in early 2017.
Date for your diary: Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Employability and Training will be holding the Scottish Government’s first Ministerial Summit on Employability on the 23 November 2016. This will be an opportunity to hear more about the development of devolved employment support services in Scotland and to share your expertise and knowledge as we move towards the procurement of the new services due to commence from April 2018.
We are still finalising the arrangements and will issue invitations in due course. Whilst numbers are likely to be limited, we do expect there to be some availability and if you would like to register your interest please contact my colleague Kelly.Dennis-allen@gov.scot.
Best wishes
