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:
 
·     
an Exception to Contractual Standing Orders to
extend a contract for 0-19 Integrated Children’s Health
Service, as detailed in the table below:
 

Detail required

Answers

Title/Description of Contracted
Service/Supply/Project

0-19
Integrated Children’s Health Service

Name of Successful
Contractor

Northern Care
Alliance

Supplier Registration Number

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Type of organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Other

Status of Organisation

(to be supplied by Corporate
Procurement)

Non-SME

Contract Value (£)

£2,663,736 full project

Contract Duration

6 months

Contract Start Date

01/04/2024

Contract End Date

30/09/2024

Optional Extension Period 1

 0 months

Optional Extension Period 2

 0 months

Who will approve each Extension
Period?

Choose an item.

Contact Officer (Name &
number)

Debbie
Blackburn

Lead Service Group

People Services

How the contract was procured?

(to be supplied by
procurement)

 

Framework Details (where
applicable)

(procurement body, framework reference
& title, start/ end date

 

Funding Source

Choose an item.

Ethical Contractor (EC): Mayor’s
Employment Charter

 

EC: Committed to sign Charter

 

EC: Accredited Living Wage
Employer

 
The Reasons are:
To request an exception to
Contractual Standing Orders to approve a six-month extension of the
contract for 0-19 Integrated Health Service to allow the service to
undertake the necessary consultation prior undertaking a compliant
competitive open tender process.
 
Options considered and rejected
were:
1. 
The options for procurement
 
Option 1: Re-procurement of the existing contract as intended
with 5% savings
1.1A full re-specification and
re-procurement of the existing contract is undertaken immediately
with the 5% saving and with a focus on the provider committing to
frontline integrated delivery. This will ensure that the current
service specification is predicated on the latest guidance and is
strengthened to focus on quality, performance and best
value.
 
1.2In
order to ensure quality provision within a reduced financial
envelope based on market feedback an Equality Impact assessment is
being undertaken to ensure we are not disadvantaging particular
communities.
 
Risks
1.3The timeline for
immediate procurement would introduce risk in transition should a
new provider be successful and TUPE transfer be delayed.
 
1.4A risk of
procurement failure with limited or no bidders due to the tight
timescales for providers to turn around their bids would introduce
risk to essential frontline services.
 
Assessment of Risk:
Risks relate to potential
challenge from external providers who would be interested in
bidding for the contract if it were to go out to tender set against
the risk of further disruption and instability in the system that
might result in a change of provider. The market testing identified
one other NHS provider outside of Greater Manchester who provides
the service to neighbouring authority. There are other NHS
providers within Greater Manchester who currently provide the
service to neighbouring authorities and they may have not felt the
urgency to submit their interest to a market testing
questionnaire.
 
The source of funding
is: Public Health
Grant
 
Legal Advice obtained: LEGAL IMPLICATIONS: Supplied by
the Shared Legal Service
Contract options for the 0-19
Integrated Children’s Health Service were previously set out
in the report of May 2022 (referred to in the background
documents). The recommendation to City Mayor was that the agreement
with NCA be extended for an additional 12-month period to 31 March
2024. The Shared Legal Service advised that such further extension
was outside of the original contract terms, and so could be subject
to challenge by an aggrieved provider unless justified under PCR
Reg 72. Given that there had already been a 12-month extension
outside of the contract terms up to 31 March 2023, the Shared Legal
Service advised that “it would be difficult to rely on the
same Reg 72 provision of the PCR” beyond that second
extension period to 31 March 2024.
 
Since the previous report, the
Council has identified potential options as set out in this report.
This states option 2 as the preferred action which entails a
variation. As set out in the previous report, PCR Regulation 72
allows for modifications to be made to an existing contract without
requiring a further procurement exercise where certain conditions
are fulfilled. Otherwise, any variation not already provided for
within the contract or not falling within the conditions of Reg72
would fall outside the scope of the PCR.
 
The protection of Regulation 72
would not however apply for the proposed extension of six months
proposed in option 2, as this would take the Council over permitted
contract value increase of 50%. Any extension agreed to by the
Council would be outside of the PCR, so the proposed six-month
extension puts the Council at risk of challenge by a third party,
against which it would have no protection or justification under
the PCR.
 
The Shared Legal Service has
also discussed Regulation 32 of PCR with relevant officers (sole
sourcing direct award of a new contract without a competitive
tender process). This is allowed in certain circumstances (such as
extreme urgency, or where competition is absent for technical
reasons). However, the soft market testing demonstrates that there
is not an absence of competition on the national market (although
it may appear that competition is very limited for Salford of
GM-based providers). Therefore Regulation 32 would not be
appropriate.
 
With regards to option 1,
(reprocure a new contract with a services commencement date of 1
April 2024), a draft procurement timetable has been produced and is
appended to this report. The timetable is challenging in the period
referred to (both for giving sufficient time for providers to give
detailed bids, and for the Council to prepare procurement
documents, evaluate bids received etc). To meet this timetable the
Council will need to devote significant time and resources and
there is a risk that trying to run a procurement process at such
pace could result in poor outcomes for the Council and increased
risk of challenge to the process.
 
If the Council is minded to
extend the contract at risk as noted under option 2 (to enable
additional time to undertake a review of service requirements and
to secure additional time for a robust re-procurement exercise),
such period must be no longer than necessary. Therefore a short
extension period of 6-12 months (and in any event no longer than 12
months), during which time the re-procurement exercise would be
undertaken, may be a more appropriate time period and would reduce
the risk of challenge. The shorter the extension period, the less
likely it is that a market operator would bring a challenge (which
would incur significant time/cost on their part). Also the fact
that the Council intends to start the new procurement process by
going out to tender as soon as October 2023 would be expected to
mitigate such risk for the same reason. 
Albeit there is no guarantee that a challenge would not be made and
were there to be a challenge then the Council would have
difficulties in defending its position.
 
Separately to the PCR, based
upon the information sent out in the report, the proposed 6-month
extension falls within an exception to the Council’s CSOs (on
the grounds of being a contract concerning “special
education, health or social care contracts, if it is considered in
the Council’s best interests and to meet the Council’s
obligations under relevant legislation”).
 
Shared Legal Services would be
happy to continue to advise and support the Council with any
actions following its options appraisal.
 
Financial Advice
obtained: Supplied by the
Finance Team
This contract is funded by the
Public Health Grant. The new contract will be subject to any
savings decisions made through the Innovate programme.
 
Procurement Advice obtained:
Supplied by The Corporate Procurement Team
The procurement options have
been considered with the recommendation for approval for option 2
to request a short extension of 6-months to allow commissioners to
undertake consultation, finalise the specification, provides
bidders more time to set out their bids and additional weeks for
mobilisation to the new service specification. The legal
implications are outlined within the above report, identifying the
risk of potential challenge from an aggrieved contractor should
option 2 be approved see timeline below.
 
Option 1 was disregarded due to
the risk that the specification may not be fully developed and
potentially resulting in a poor outcome in the tendering process.
See procurement timeline option 1, the tender documentation has not
been prepared, the specification not yet finalised and TUPE
information has not been collated, making the timeline unrealistic
any resulting delays may lead to further requests for extensions,
this would be by agreement only with NCA.
 
The recommendation to extend
the contract with NCA is an exception to CSO’s as there is no
provision in the existing contract to be extended. There is a risk
of challenge by a market operator who has not had the opportunity
to bid for the contract but as extension is short and the
specification is still being developed, this risk may be deemed to
be lower.
 
Following any recommendation
the procurement team will work with the public health team to
undertake a compliant and competitive open tender process following
the relevant regulations in line with the council’s CSOs to
achieve the innovate savings outlined within the report.
 
HR Advice obtained:
N/A
 
Climate Change Implications
obtained: N/A
 
The following documents have
been used to assist the decision process:
·     
Procurement decision for the 0-19 service
2017
·     
Contract specification for the 0-19 Integrated
Children’s Health Service 2017-20
·     
Salford City Council, Record of Decision –
City Mayor Paul Dennett, 21 Apr 2021
·     
Options for 0-19 Integrated Childrens Health 0-19
options paper May 2022
·     
Options for 0-19 integrated Childrens Health 0-19
options paper February 2023 
 
Contact Officer: Debbie Blackburn          
Telephone number: 01616076678
 
This document records a key
decision and the matter was included in the Council’s Forward
Plan
 
The appropriate Scrutiny
Committee to call-in the decision is the Childrens and Health and
Care
 
 

Signed:       Paul Dennett         Dated:    31 August
2023.
           
         City
Mayor
 

FOR DEMOCRATIC SERVICES USE
ONLY
 
*          
This decision was published on 31 August 2023
*          
This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 7 September 2023
unless it is called-in in
accordance with the Decision-Making Process Rules.