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Decision taken
Cabinet approved that the contract procedure
rules be waived and delegate authority to the Executive Director
(Finance and Transformation), in consultation with the Executive
Member for Finance, to award extensions to the support arrangements
with Marsh Ltd up to a total spend value of
£125k. 
 
Reason for decision
The Council’s Insurance and Treasury
Lead Officer left the Council in late 2023. It was known this would
be a very challenging to recruit to due to the broad range of
functions and technical aspects of the role, so the opportunity was
taken to review how the role was delivered.
 
Functions were separated and the role was
amended with focus on Insurance and Risk which is more consistent
with the markets grouping of functions. 
In January 2024, whilst the review was taking place, external
support was explored with other councils and the Council’s
insurance brokers. There was no capacity with other councils to
provide any support and so support was commissioned from the
Councils insurance brokers, Marsh Limited. 
 
This support is focussed on the claims
handling aspects of the role, with other work being picked up by
other members of the team in the short-term.
 
The role had been advertised twice, with no
success. The role has now been reviewed further and we are working with a recruitment
specialist to undertake a specialist recruitment campaign. It is
unlikely that the role will be filled prior to the end of the
current contract with March Limited.