This was a private meeting at which Hackney Council officers were scheduled to make key decisions about future procurement activities. The outcomes were to be published online afterwards.

Transformation Consultancy Support

The most significant item on the agenda was a report asking for approval to begin procuring consultancy services. These consultancy services were for two distinct pieces of work that relate to Hackney Council's Corporate Transformation Programme.

The first piece of work, for which the Council was seeking to appoint a consultant immediately, was to carry out analysis of the causes of demand for several Council services, with the aim of reducing that demand and thereby saving money.

In phase one, the provider will work with us to develop demand and cost analysis, models for demand management and business cases across the following demand-led services: Homelessness, Adults social care, Children’s social care and Education, specifically the special education needs and disabilities (SEND) cohort.

The second piece of work, for which a consultant was to be appointed at a later date, was to implement the recommendations made as part of the first phase of work.

The report argues that the Council does not have capacity to do this work in-house and that doing nothing is also not an option, due to the very significant financial challenges facing the council.

The anticipated cost of the first phase of this work was between £400,000 and £600,000, and potentially over £2,000,000 for both phases. The first phase was expected to last for four months.

The report recommends that the contract for the first phase of work be awarded through a mini competition using the Bloom framework.¹

It was anticipated that the contract for the second phase of work would be awarded to the same supplier at a later date.

The report notes that Hackney Council is forecasting an in-year overspend of £38,210,000 for 2024/25, and budget gaps of £35,814,000, £49,281,000 and £67,230,000 for 2025/26, 2026/27, and 2027/28 respectively.

CED Electrical Testing

A report was scheduled for discussion about the business case for procuring electrical testing services. No information about the contents of the report was included in the meeting pack.

Procurement timetable

The final item on the agenda was the proposed dates for future meetings. Meetings were scheduled to take place on 11 February 2025, 11 March 2025, 8 April 2025 and 13 May 2025.