Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the
Council Constitution
do hereby:
 
·     
approve Salford City Council’s participation
in the contract extension of the existing Greater Manchester
collaborative contract for the provision of temporary agency
workers, as detailed in the table below:
 

Detail
required

Answers

Contract
Reference

S1036

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Managed Service for Temporary Agency
Recruitment (Greater Manchester Collaboration)

Name
of Contractor

Reed Specialist Recruitment
Ltd

2Type of
organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Limited Liability
Partnership

Status of
Organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Non-SME

Value of Contract Extension
(£)

£5m per annum estimated
average

Existing Contract
Term

29/01/2022 to 28/01/2025

Extension
Period

29/01/2025 to 28/01/2026

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Sam Betts
0161 607 8602

Lead Service
Group

Resources and
Transformation

Funding
Source

Revenue Budget

Ethical Contractor (EC):
Mayor’s Employment Charter

EC: Committed to sign the
Charter

EC: Accredited Living Wage
Employer

 
The
reasons are:
The Council takes a number of
strategic and operational workforce planning approaches to maintain
appropriate staffing levels and ensure the right people with the
right skills, knowledge and behaviours are in place at the right
time to meet the short and long-term needs for effective service
delivery.
 
However, a number of external
and internal factors, many of which can be unpredictable, unplanned
or immediate in need can affect staffing levels requiring a more
immediate or temporary solution that typical resourcing routes may
not be suitable to offer.
 
Over a number of years, the
Council has collaborated with other regional local authorities and
organisations to develop an approach to engaging temporary workers
to reduce costs and risks for the organisation when it comes to
maintaining the right employee levels for effective service
delivery.
 
Throughout this time Salford
has continued to be part of the collaborative arrangements with the
current Greater Manchester collaborative contract in place since
2016 - via the use of a beneficiary agreement with Trafford Council
who are the contracting authority with the provider.
 
Salford City Council is not
committed to any level of spend via this arrangement and it is a
compliant and cost-effective route to procure agency workers as and
when required.
 
The current contract is with
Reed Specialist Recruitment which has largely been successful,
although there are still challenges within specific occupational
groups where there is high demand and a lack of suitably skilled
candidates for example, qualified social workers.
 
As the current collaborative
contract came to an end on the 28 January 2025 STaR Procurement, on behalf of Trafford Council and
all participating collaborative members, have led the
recommendations to proceed with the final twelve month extension
available to us under the current Framework agreement, while we
continue drives to reduce our reliance on temporary workers and
plan for future endeavours, with the view that as a collaborative
body we will potentially pursue alternative means of temporary
supply beyond this.
 
The contract extension with
Trafford Council commenced on 29 January 2025 until 28 January 2026
for the final twelve-month renewal permitted within the contract
agreement.
 
All Greater Manchester
authorities are committed to the next collaboration via the use of
a beneficiary agreement with Trafford Council along with Blackpool
Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council, Greater Manchester Police
and Warrington Council. The benefits of a single collaborative
approach include:
·     
A consistent, collaborative approach across GM and
other participating partners.
·     
An efficient and effective platform for temporary
staffing supply.
·     
A central control of the supply base including rates
(supply chain and pay rates).
·     
Reduction to the costs of the process for
acquisition of temporary workers.
·     
Efficiencies of resources when jointly procuring the
service.
·     
A lower risk exposure for organisations when there
is a need to engage agency workers.
·     
Overarching single governance, compliance,
performance management and supplier auditing approach.
·     
Local and collaborative management information,
business intelligence and insights in relation to the engagement of
agency workers.
·     
A central issue resolution and points of
escalation.
·     
Consolidated and streamlined invoicing.
·     
Opportunities for harmonisation of approaches,
processes, and terms and conditions.
 
Options
considered and rejected were:
Not to participate in the
extension and undertake an exercise individually to source the
supply of temporary agency workers. This would prove costly and not
achieve the benefits of collaboration outlined above.
 
Assessment of risk:
If the recommendation is not
approved, then there is a substantial risk of the Council being
charged higher rates for agency workers, and that we would not meet
the shared standards in regards to
compliance, safeguarding and insurances. Direct sourcing
arrangements with individual agency suppliers will grow beyond our
span of control, and managing the spend would become increasingly
complex, difficult and risky in terms of potential blind spots of
activity.

There would also be some reputational damage in terms of our
participation in the collaborative contracts, which may have
implications for whichever resourcing model we explore beyond this
contract.
 
The source of funding is: Revenue
Budget.
 
LEGAL
IMPLICATIONS:
Submitted by: Tony Hatton, The
Shared Legal Service 11/02/2025
It is an established principle
that an existing public contract is capable of being extended (or
modified providing any modification does not affect the overall
nature of the contract), and CSO’s also allow for contract
extensions to be made, where the parties agree and where the
original contract makes provision for such an extension of the
original term.
 
When the contract was
originally awarded in 2022 following call off using the YPO
Framework agreement by way of mini competition, it was clear in the
procurement and tender documents that the original three-year term
would be subject to a potential extension of a twelve months.
Accordingly, any risk that the award would be subject to realistic
challenge by an aggrieved provider is extremely low, and the option
to extend within the contract is now being properly
exercised.
 
Other reasons for awarding the
extension are set out in the body of the report, and in accordance
with CSOs, where the value of any contract or extension is above
£1 million, then approval should be made by City Mayor on the
recommendation of the Procurement Board.
 
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
Submitted by: Paul Guest
– Senior Accountant 07/02/2025
This report seeks a one-year
extension to the current contract for the supply of temporary
workers via Reeds Specialist Recruitment.
 
The requirement for temporary
workers forms an essential part of business continuity and ensures
that unpredictable and unplanned staffing levels can be addressed
more immediately. The primary use of this contract is for Social
Workers within Children’s Directorate and Drivers and
Labourers in the Place Directorate. There is an expected contract
value for Salford of around £5m per annum although there is
no minimal spend level set in the contract.
 
Both directorates are taking
positive action to reduce the reliance upon Agency workers and work
is currently on-going on this, which should see spend on agency
workers reduce in 2025/26.
 
There is provision within the
revenue budgets to fund the use of temporary workers via this
contract.
 
PROCUREMENT IMPLICATIONS:
Submitted by: Emma Heyes,
Category Manager, The Corporate Procurement Team.
STaR procurement undertook the
tendering of this contract on behalf of all of the GM Collaboration
participants. This was facilitated through a mini competition from
the YPO framework, which is fully complaint with Procurement
Regulations.
 
A robust evaluation was
conducted following the published award criteria, and Reed were
selected as the bidder that submitted the most economically
advantageous tender.
 
The original award was made for
a period of 3 years with the option to extend for a further 12
months. This request is to invoke the final one-year extension
period, which is permissible as it was included within the scope of
the original contract.
A full re-tender of this
contract will be required during 2025 to have a new contract in
place for the end of January 2026, and the procurement team will
assist with any supporting role to work with the HR&OD team and
the GM collaboration during this phase.
 
HR
IMPLICATIONS:
Supplied by: Jess
Marshall-Townsend, Recruitment and Talent Manager.
The council needs a compliant,
timely and cost-effective solution to procure agency workers as and
when required.
 
There is a risk by not entering
into the collaborative arrangements of being charged higher rates
for agency workers, and that we would not meet the shared standards
in regard to compliance, safeguarding and insurances
etc.
 
The collaborative approach
achieves efficiencies of resources when jointly procuring the
service and overall contract management that would need to be met
locally that would have a notable impact on service delivery. It is
also unlikely that a local and smaller directly procured contract
would achieve the economies of scale or value for money the
collective approach achieves.
 
Equally, we are positive about
the ongoing initiatives and drives from both a permanent
recruitment perspective and in regards
to addressing areas of higher spend with cost-saving and
sustainability being the key focuses; in order to continue
supporting these efforts a final twelve month extension of the
contract will give us a solid foundation to build
around.
 
CLIMATE
CHANGE IMPLICATIONS:
No climate change implications have been identified at this
point.
 
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
·     
Procurement Board report to award the contract
8th December 2021
Part 1 - Open to the
Public
 
Contact
details:
Contact Officer: Samantha Betts, Director of HR &
OD
Telephone number:0161 607 8602
 
Please delete from the bullets
below any which are not relevant:
·     
This matter is also subject to consider by the Lead
Member for Finance, Support Services & Regeneration.
·     
The Lead Member has been consulted and is supportive
of the proposed contract.
·     
This document records a key decision but the matter
was not included in the Council’s Forward Plan and it has
been dealt with under the emergency procedure.
·     
The appropriate Scrutiny Committee to call-in the
decision is the
 
 

Signed:   Paul
Dennett        Dated:     28
April 2025.
           
      City
Mayor
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY:
 

This decision was published on
28 April 2025
This decision will come in force
at 4pm on 6 May 2025 unless it
is called-in in accordance with the Decision
Making Process Rules.