Purpose

The procurement strategy decision to procure Home to School Minibus transport services to St Giles School

Decision

For the reasons set out in the report and appendices the Cabinet Member for Streets and Environment AGREED to:

Approve the commissioning strategy identified within the detail of this report to procure a single supplier to be appointed under a contract for a term of 7 years, to deliver minibus services for children/young people with Special Educational Needs/Disabilities for an estimated contract value of £1.01m per year (£7.07m over the full term.)

Reasons for the decision

The current (Lot 2) contract with the incumbent provider HATs Ltd was extended and is due to end in August 2026.  By retendering for this contract, the council will be able to continue to deliver a value for money and a high-quality passenger transport minibus service to local schools.  A service which will meet the clients’ needs no matter how complex and a service which works within the council’s budgetary restraints.

This approach also permits the Council some flexibility within its bus service provision i.e. if a short-term requirement for transport is required, the contract can be scaled up or down as required. 

Alternative options considered

The service is statutory and service users already have three different travel assistance options:

• Traditional transport,
• Independent Travel Training
• Personal Transport Budgets.

Minibus routes to be insourced: On a direct comparison basis insourcing does not offer better value for money by either leasing or purchasing vehicle. The estimated annual cost to insource the 20 buses (leasing) is £1.2m compared to the current annual cost £1.01m for the cost of the routes currently serviced by London Hire Ltd.  It is likely that any retendered cost may also see recent inflationary pressures reflected (see 2.1). Any insourced cost would also likely incur additional pension contributions at additional cost to the provision.

If the Council sought to purchase vehicles as part of an insourcing, delivery of vehicles within the existing time frame could not be achieved (in order to provide any cost benefit to purchasing as opposed to leasing).  There is also the issue of the Council’s current appetite for Capital borrowing which would need to show a cost benefit over 3 years (which it may not achieve).

Additionally, the current depot space which the Council operates its insourced service from, is currently at capacity and therefore any additional insourcing would have to consider additional parking space (not on the current site – with all the additional operational issues that this gives) as well as the direct costs associated with renting additional space.

To tender routes through the DPS framework – A number of the buses in this contract service clients with serious health issues and the availability of such trained contractors is scarce and therefore in high demand.  There is no guarantee that we will be able to source these through the framework, compared to the reliability of a long term-contract costs will be high.