Purpose

The current Staff Travel Management contract
is due to expire at the end of July. Following a procurement
process and supplier engagement it is requested that the decision
to renew this contract to the preferred bidder from this
process.

Decision

(1) 
 To support the re-procurement of a corporate
supplier for Staff Travel.
 
(2) 
To note that the
Emergency Housing element shall be separately awarded and is not
part of this decision. For an interim period of 2-3 months the
Emergency Housing element shall continue to be delivered alongside
the Staff Travel element.
 
(3) 
To delegate authority
to award the contract to the Director of Financial Services,
Assurance & Pensions, following the final decision regarding
successful bidder(s).

Reasons for the decision

The Council initiated a review process to assess the
current and future provision of Travel Management, covering staff
travel, Emergency Housing and Emergency Planning
requirements.
 
The review process included an investigation into
current/historical provision of services and the development of key
areas of improvement to existing services.
 
These key areas for improvement for Staff Travel
included:
 
· 
Improved Contract
Management
· 
Separation of
Emergency Housing from staff travel service with regard to process,
reporting and invoicing
· 
Improved booking
process
· 
Confirmation of VFM to
the Council, via benchmarking or other means
 
The review also included reaching a decision on whether or
not the services required are consistent with the market offering,
and to confirm if contracts are in place with other public sector
organisations.
 
To determine which supplier(s) to engage, there was a
Framework investigation to establish the most suitable suppliers in
the market.
 
The initial engagement process was aimed to establish
if:
 
(1) 
The market can provide
the required services
(2) 
Available frameworks
are likely to be compliant
(3) 
Suppliers are
interested in the contract
 
There followed a more detailed investigation to assist with
the decision on most favourable
supplier. This included:
 
(1) 
Demonstration and
presentation meetings covering:
a) 
System look and
feel
b) 
User-friendly for
administrators and users
c) 
Ability to include
Staff Travel Policy elements within the platform
d) 
Provision of Emergency
Housing service and separation of administration
e) 
Cost to council and
benchmarking
 
(2) 
Written response to
include:
a) 
Suggested compliant
Framework
b) 
Other frameworks
possible
c) 
Sustainability
approach
d) 
Flexibility and added
value
 
The assessment process included input from officers across
the council, representing users of the system and current
administrators.
 
The final assessment was conducted and recommendations
agreed on the preferred supplier/s.
 
Alongside the assessment of suppliers, investigation into
the various available frameworks was completed to assess
suitability and compliance.

Alternative options considered

As detailed in the report, a number
of alternative suppliers were considered within the
engagement process.
 
An open procurement process was also considered but was
discounted as there was no apparent benefit to the Council of a
protracted procurement process, in a market where a number of framework options exist.
 
The option not to have a corporate supplier for staff
travel was discounted. The Council’s spend for staff travel
exceeds the public procurement thresholds and therefore the Council
are required to run a compliant procurement process to appoint a
supplier(s) for these services. On a practical note, it is also
beneficial to have an identified corporate supplier for these
services to ensure consistency and alignment with the Staff Travel
Policy and also to reduce the staff time
spent searching and arranging travel.