Purpose

A report to seek approval to commence a
procurement exercise to identify a supplier to design and implement
a target operating model to support the delivery of the Transport,
Highways and Parking Capital Programme in preparation for delivery
of the the City Region Sustainable Travel Settlement (CRSTS)
projects from 2027.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the
Corporate Director has decided to:
 
1)   
Commence a procurement exercise to identify a supplier to provide
professional services to independently review the existing
Transport, Highways and Parking (THP) department’s delivery
model, and if required, work with the Council to design and
implement a revised target operating model to support the
Council’s THP department for a period of 18 months and for a
total estimated value of £350,000.00 excluding VAT.

Alternative options considered

Option 1: Do nothing
Pursuing this option assumes the capacity and
capabilities within the existing model suitably prepares THP to
deliver a significantly greater capital portfolio.
In advance of 2024/25, a capital expenditure
target of £60.2m was set for THP. The final outturn on
capital expenditure for 2024/25 was £38m. The final outturn
was, therefore, 58.4% less than the original capital
expenditure target for 2024/25.
This demonstrates that doing nothing is likely
to result in THP failing to deliver against increasing capital
expenditure targets, and this could have reputational impacts for
Council.
 
Option 2: Increase capacity without
assessing the viability of the current operating model
TCR and other funding streams will
significantly increase the capital portfolio and, therefore, the
overall work demand placed upon THP. An option is to increase
capital delivery capacity within the existing organisational
structure of the department. This option involves not
assessing the viability of the model in the context of a rapidly
growing portfolio.
The scale of the incoming funding from 2025/26
onwards inhibits the viability of this option.
An increase in output of this scale increases
both the capacity requirements placed upon the service, but also
the complexity of schemes that are delivered.
Pursuing Option 2 would not provide THP with
an opportunity to refine, enhance, and evolve key features of its
delivery operating model. It would not, for example, involve
appraising the current skill set of the workforce and identifying
areas for training, development, and recruitment. Again, on this
basis, this may result in not having sufficient resource/capacity
in the correct teams to enable projects to move through the
existing project lifecycle.