Purpose

To request approval to award a contract for the provision of Housing Temporary Accommodation and Private Sector Leasing Digital Management Platform via Framework.

Decision

That the Director of Housing Needs and Support:

i)               Approves the pre-tender considerations.

ii)              Approves the award of contract for the provision of Housing Temporary Accommodation and Private Sector Leasing Digital Management Platform through the YPO Commissioning Solutions 2 Framework (1231) to Access UK Ltd for a period of three years at a total contract value of £271,030, excluding VAT.

Reasons for the decision

The Council requires a cloud-based digital platform to support the procurement and ongoing management of nightly paid and leased temporary accommodation. Current arrangements place a heavy emphasis on administrative burden on staff operating in a highly pressurised environment, with officers relying on manual processes, email-based property availability, duplicated data entries and manual invoice reconciliation. Officers have considered the available options and recommend award of a contract to Access UK Ltd as the option that provides the strongest operational and strategic fit, including live supply visibility, provider registration, property compliance, booking and contract management, consolidated invoicing and improved reporting.

Alternative options considered

Officers considered retaining the current operational model, however this would leave the service reliant on manual processes, fragmented systems, limited visibility of supply and time-consuming invoice reconciliation and would not address the administrative burden, payment delays or operational inefficiencies currently affecting the service.

Officers also considered whether the current process could be improved using existing systems, but this option was discounted due to the functionality required.

Officers therefore considered the procurement and implementation of a dedicated cloud-based temporary accommodation and private sector leasing management platform the best option to provide a single digital workflow from provider registration through to payment. This will improve visibility of available supply, support faster placement into suitable accommodation, strengthen compliance, and automate invoice reconciliation. Officers consider that this option offers the strongest strategic and operational fit and therefore recommend award of the contract to Access UK Ltd.