Content

Salford City Council – Record of
Decision
 
I Councillor J Youd, Lead
Member for Finance and Support Services and chairman of the
Procurement Board, in exercise of the powers contained
within the Council Constitution do hereby:
 
·     
approve the extension of Contract for Postal
Services and approval to go out to competition for new
collaborative tender of Postal Services, as detailed in the table
below:
 

Detail
required

Answers

Contract
Reference

S1025

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

Approval for an Extension of Contract
for Postal Services & Approval to go out to competition for new
collaborative tender of Postal Services

Name
of Contractor

Whistl UK Limited

Type of
organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Private Limited
Company

Status of
Organisation
(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Non-SME

Value of Contract Extension
(£)

£480,000 full
project

Existing Contract
Term

01/03/2023 to 28/02/2024

Extension
Period

01/03/2024 to 29/02/2025

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Peter Cowling 0161 779
X4996

Lead Service
Group

Service Reform &
Development

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:
·     
In February 2015, a group of authorities from the
Yorkshire and Humberside region agreed to form a collaborative
group for the procurement of mail services in the region. This was
subsequently extended to include authorities from Greater
Manchester with the intention of driving cost saving through
volume-based discounts there has now been several contract renewals
using this procurement group the group now consists of 24
authorities.
 
·     
The aim of this procurement exercise was to
establish a single service provider to deliver a robust postal
service to the named contracting authorities that provide savings
to all authorities and delivers social value.

·     
In February 2020 the Procurement Board approved the
award of the postal service contract to Whistl Ltd.
 

Financial benefits
Following notification of
extensions by other framework partners, including the lead
authority Kirklees, the collaborative group has secured better
commercial pricing and terms than would be possible individually;
one of the significant strengths of the Whistl agreement is Volume related discounts (VRD)
to all participants based on combined volumes.
 
The minimum for collective
authorities to achieve the maximum VRD is 15 million mail items
annually. Currently, the YHA/Whistl
agreement processes over 15 million items annually; therefore,
Salford should benefit from maximum VRD. Salford CC sent 844,485
Items during (Jan-Dec) 2023; this is in comparison to 925,435 items
during 2022 (Jan-Dec), a total reduction of 80,950
items.
 
The total savings achieved by
Salford during 2022 in comparison with using an equivalent Royal
Mail service is £173,135 over the same period.
 
Whistl has agreed through
clarification that all volumes contribute to achieving the overall
volume-related discount ‘thresholds’; however,
discounts will only apply to the DSA items (this excludes recorded
or special delivery items). This will ensure that the authorities
can benefit from all their volumes being included in the commercial
proposition.
 

Best Value
This
contract was procured via a competitive tender process, therefore,
ensuring the best value supplier was appointed. Whilst Salford have
the ability to procure this service individually, we would be
unable to match the savings applied from volume-based discounts
achieved by the collaborative offer.
 

Social Value
Throughout the process, the
authorities prioritised the delivery of greater social value and
added emphasis to the provision of training and employment
opportunities to local people by the successful supplier. In their
response, Whistl indicated its
commitment to generating employment in the local areas and through
its supply.
 
Whistl has provided a statement
outlining their Social value process (see supporting document
Whistl Social Value
document).
 
Whistl has since opening their
super hub in Bolton worked with a number of local authorities
including Salford. Wigan, Bolton local colleges and schools to
provide opportunities for employment.
 
In addition to supporting local
authorities whistle have created a driver training academy since
2021 to train potential HGV drivers via apprenticeships for anyone
over 18 with a driver’s licences. Whistl have recently created a Greater Manchester
Careers and Enterprise Advisor network to operate at local/Regional
levels working with local schools to provide the opportunity for
students to experience working life before they leave school with
schemes ranging from logistics to support functions such as HR,
Marketing and Finance. Salford will be looking to engage with these
services via our account manager.
 
Whistl also have a commitment to
disadvantaged communities as part of its EDI charter (Equality
Diversity Inclusion).

 
KPIs and
Contract Monitoring

·     
KPIs will be monitored at quarterly intervals
between the allocated Whistl account
manager, Peter Cowling (SCC Business Manager) and Christopher
Eckersley (Document Services Manager).

·     
KPI monitoring will include:

o 
All volumes of post in the period.

o 
Postal Class reports (to identify potential to
change service class).

o 
Invoicing Values.
o 
Delivery Times.
 
Contract renewal and retender
The option to continue with
this collaboration will give the Council access to volume discounts
we would not achieve with our own postal volumes.
 
The risk of not continuing with
the collaboration would mean that the Council would have to
undertake its own tender exercise, and potentially, prices would
significantly increase from March 2025.
 
Therefore, approval is also
sought to continue participating in the group tender exercise,
which will be managed by Kirklees Council on behalf of the
group.
 
Officers from Salford attend
group meetings, and upon the conclusion of the tender exercise, a
decision paper will be brought back to the Procurement Board for
approval to award the contract to the successful provider in due
course.
 
Options considered and rejected were: None.
 
Assessment of risk:
Low.
 
The source of funding is:
Revenue Budget.
 
Legal advice obtained:
Yes.
 
Financial advice obtained: Yes.
 
Procurement advice obtained: Yes.
 
HR advice obtained: Not Applicable.
 
Climate change implications obtained: Yes.
 
Documents used:
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
·     
RM1063 Tender Report – Summary paper produced
by Lead Authorities outlining the result of the tender process
(available on request).
·     
Record of Decision 17/02/2020.
 
Contact details:
Contact Officer: Peter Cowling
Telephone number: 0161 779 4996
 
Please delete from the bullets
below any which are not relevant:
·     
This matter is also subject to consider by the Lead
Member for Finance and Support Services.
·     
The Lead Member has been consulted and is supportive
of the proposed contract.
·     
The appropriate Scrutiny Committee to call-in the
decision is the Procurement board.
 
 

Signed:     Cllr J
Youd                    
Dated:     28
February 2024.
           
    Lead Member
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 28 February 2024
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 6 March 2024
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision-Making Process Rules.