Purpose

A report seeking approval to activate an
extension to an existing support partner contract in relation to
Transformation.

Decision

For the reasons set out in this report, the
Corporate Director has decided to:
 
1)   
Activate an 18 month extension of work
area 7 of the contract with Inner Circle Consulting from
1st January 2026.
 
2)   
Vary the existing contract with Inner Circle Consulting to extend
current Transformation leadership support under work area 7 of the
contract for a 3 month period from
Oct-Dec 2025 at a cost of £34,780

Alternative options considered

The alternative option in relation to decision
number one would be not to activate the 18-month extension in
relation to work area 7.  This would
mean that the Council wouldn’t have the continuing option or
facility to draw down transformation related support from its
current Transformation support partner.
 
In relation to the transformation leadership
support, the alternative option to this decision would be to not
draw on additional resource to support this work through the
existing contract.  This would mean the
short term need for additional resource
to cover key roles and work within the transformation team that has
arisen would not be met.
 
The only other alternative would be to try to
fill these roles via agency recruitment or an alternative / new
procurement.  This would not be cost
effective and would add delay and would not take advantage of a
contract that has been put in place for this very purpose.
 
Use of employed resources or recruiting new
employees would be a further alternative, but this would not be
able to replicate the nature of the support entirely and in
addition, it is highly unlikely that the Council would be able to
attract the relevant talent required for such a role on a fixed
term basis, let alone in sufficient time to conclude this work to
the required timescales.