The Roads Collaboration Programme was established in December 2013 to support the recommendation of the National Roads Maintenance Review (NRMR), to explore opportunities to share services among the 32 roads authorities and Transport Scotland in order to ensure a resilient and sustainable roads service for Scotland’s communities.

 

​The National Roads Maintenance Review (NRMR) The NRMR reviewed how Scotland's road network is managed and maintained, with a view to stimulating service re-design and increasing the pace of examining the potential for shared services. The review aimed to identify how those responsible for, and working in, Scotland's road maintenance sector could deliver efficiently managed roads for all within the budgets available and identify opportunities for innovation, collaborative working and sharing services. The review also considered how the Scottish Government could work better with local authorities.

 

Overseen by a Programme Board inclusive of Transport Scotland, members of the Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland (SCOTS), SOLACE, COSLA and the Improvement Service, the programme has the following aims:

 

• To support the design and delivery of existing roads authority initiatives to share services/capacity within Roads Services
• To develop existing shared initiatives further, considering the potential to widen the scope of what could be shared, widen partnerships, remove/manage barriers to change, escalating the business case design stage to drive forward a faster pace of change
• To identify new opportunities for collaboration between the 33 roads authorities and to develop these
• To encourage and support communication cross-authority boundaries via a number of channels to promote the sharing of best practice, innovation and expertise and regular re-visiting of further opportunities for collaboration and shared services development
• To encourage the consistent use of roads-related data, maximizing the potential to use the data to drive improvement.
• To support local authorities and their partners to establish sound governance arrangements for shared initiatives that meet all EU procurement guidelines.

 

The overall output of the programme will be a robust portfolio of delivered and planned collaboration initiatives that see local authorities and Transport Scotland working together across organisational boundaries, implementing improved ways of working and service delivery.

 

Following an extended period of consultation with all local authority roads services and Transport Scotland, including a national event in February 2014, it was agreed to take the programme forward in two distinct paths:

 

• Supporting Strategic Change
• Priority Collaborative Projects