The Officer Key Decision meeting on 6 September 2024 considered a report about the awarding of a contract for school support services to Newham Partnership Working (NPW).

School Support Services Contract Award - Newham Partnership Working Limited (Public reports pack 06th-Sep-2024 Officer Key Decision)

The report requested authority for Laura Eden, the Corporate Director of Children and Young People, to award a contract for school support services to NPW for an initial 12 months with an option to extend for a further 12 months. The total value of the contract over the two year period was estimated at £544,000.

The report describes NPW as:

a company limited by guarantee, owned by member schools and the Council. It was incorporated in 2011 and originally established under what is now known as Regulation 12 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

The report says that the new contract will not include 'governor services', which would instead be delivered by the council directly.

It says that the council has a statutory duty to provide some school support services to schools in the borough, and that NPW has provided a range of services to schools in Newham since 2013, adding:

If the Council were to move away from NPW, it would require a transformation programme and would take a significant amount of time to migrate services either in house or to another provider.

The report says that in future years 'arrangements will explore the possibility of incorporating a competitive tender process'.