Managing procurement to promote equality in further and higher education

Higher education institutions (HEIs) and colleges procure a wide range of goods and services – from office furniture and IT systems to the services of marketing consultants, architects and publication or website designers.

If HEIs and colleges are to ensure that the goods and services they procure are accessible to everyone, it is vital that equality issues are incorporated in a meaningful way into the procurement process. Institutions also have legal responsibilities to promote equality when carrying out their functions. The fact that a particular service is being out-sourced does not absolve the HEI or college of these responsibilities. They must ensure that the contractor is delivering the service in a manner that is fully consistent with their own statutory requirements.

ECU will be developing guidance on managing procurement in a way that promotes equality over the coming months. We will work with sector procurement professionals and equality and diversity practitioners to develop a framework for embedding equality into each stage of the procurement cycle. We will also be gathering examples from across the sectors of how institutions have effectively incorporated equality considerations into procurement activities to support this framework.

Contributing

ECU is interested to hear from HEIs and Scottish colleges who can provide examples of:

• Institutional, central and local procurement policies that entrench equality
  
• Procurement processes, showing how equality issues are built into the different stages of the procurement cycle
• Recent procurement of goods, works or services particularly relevant to equality
  
• Procurement agreements with external providers that incorporate equality obligations

If institutions are willing, ECU will use selected examples as case studies in the final guidance.

If you would like to become involved in the project or want to share examples of promoting equality through procurement policies and practices, please email Freya Douglas.