This meeting of the Executive Decision of Waltham Forest Council was scheduled to discuss awarding a contract for planned maintenance works to schools and corporate buildings. The agenda included only one item for discussion.

Multi-Trade Measured Term Contract Award

The Director of Capital Strategy and Portfolio Management was asked to consider a recommendation to award the Measured Term Contract (MTC) for Multi-Trade Works to Kirkman & Jourdain Ltd for a two-year period, with the option to extend for two further one-year periods. The overall value of the contract would not exceed £4,000,000.

The report pack stated that the primary purpose of this contract is to support the School’s Capital Repairs Programme, maintaining the estate and ensuring the health and safety of all pupils and staff.

The council commissioned condition surveys in 2023 to identify and prioritise building elements nearing the end of their useful life, and to identify health and safety issues in buildings. Typical works include:

• roof replacement
• window replacement and repair
• internal and external refurbishment
• toilet refurbishments
• pathway resurfacing
• structural repairs

The report pack stated that these works are planned to be delivered in a phased programme between now and 2028, matched to available funds and regular reviews of the council’s priorities for repair and replacement. The contract may also be used for similar works to corporate and other public buildings. Provision for this work has been included in the annual Schools Capital Programme since 2015.

According to the report pack, a MTC is an established route for local authorities to deliver small value general building works, and benefit from economies of scale, standardisation, bulk purchase and repeat business.

Tenders were advertised on the council’s e-tendering portal. Bids were invited on 15 November 2024 and received on 20 December 2024. Evolve Norse, the council’s technical services partner, evaluated the bids. 199 contractors expressed an interest in tendering, and 17 tenders were received. Three submissions were deemed non-compliant due to incompleteness of price and quality submissions. A further five bidders were rejected either because of their responses to the mandatory eligibility questions and/or their social value response. The remaining nine returns were evaluated on a price and quality basis, with a 40% weighting on quality.

The report pack stated that the best value bid for a representative sample of works is £214,288.62 from Kirkman & Jourdain Ltd, who obtained the highest score on quality, and the highest score on price. Overall, Kirkman & Jourdain Ltd.'s tender is considered to offer best value based on the quality/price assessment.

The report pack noted that the council could decide not to award the contract, however, this could result in the council not meeting its statutory duty to maintain building infrastructure in schools, which will ultimately result in potential risks to health and safety and school closures.

The report pack stated that the MTC for Multi-Trade Works will support the delivery of the council’s priority as identified in Mission Waltham Forest to ensure that every family and every child are given every opportunity; by ensuring the schools estate remains in good condition.

The report pack included an Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA) screening template. The EqIA screening concluded that there were no negative impacts to any of the protected characteristics¹.