The meeting included 10 reports. Six of these reports were about awarding new contracts for a variety of services, three were to approve extensions to existing contracts and one was about extending an existing apprenticeship training framework.

Procurement of an Employer's Agent for the Kings Crescent and Marian Court regeneration projects

This report was to approve the awarding of contracts for Employer's Agent services for the next stages of two regeneration projects, the Kings Crescent Estate and Marian Court. The Kings Crescent Estate project will see the refurbishment of 174 existing homes, and the construction of 219 new homes, a new community facility, 480m² of retail space and 500m² of office space. The Marian Court project will see the construction of 160 new homes, a new community facility, and 1017m² of retail or workspace. The report proposed awarding both of these contracts to Potter Raper Ltd, who had already been working on the projects, for the reasons described below. A number of options for procuring the services were considered, including running open competitions, using alternative frameworks, and insourcing the services. These were rejected for a variety of reasons. For example, it was decided that insourcing was not a viable option because:

These specialist services are not available within the Council and, as such, this route is not an option.

It was decided that running an open competition would:

further delay the schemes, incurring additional contractual costs and adversely impacting scheme financial viability challenges.

And the report states that other frameworks were rejected because:

Although there were two other Frameworks that were compliant for Local Authority use, such as CHIC and Prosper, which offered all of the services required, charged no fees and offered direct awards, the Council were not familiar with them and as part of our due diligence, it would have meant going through their Terms and Conditions and negotiating the council's amendments, resulting in a time implication.

The report recommended using a direct award through the Procure Public Framework to Potter Raper Ltd, because:

The failure to continue the service, given that the cost, value and design optimisation process was co-developed with PRL, the Council and the contractor, would have had a high impact.

The report goes on to state that the proposed fees represent a saving compared to the ProcurePublic framework rates:

As the schemes are not being completely redesigned through RIBA Stages 2&3¹, the quoted fees are significantly lower compared to the ProcurePublic framework rates. However PRL’s fees offer savings achieved through the efficiency in contract administration of three schemes (Kings Crescent estate, Marian Court and Nightingale estate Block E, known as “the Big Three”) with a single contractor and client.

Procurement of Family Time Services

The report proposed procuring Family Time Services for Looked After Children. This service provides the facility for children who are looked after by the local authority to have safe contact with their parents and wider family. The report described how the previous provider of this service had gone into administration:

On 19th October 2023 the Council was notified that the original provider had gone into administration.

The report explained how a temporary contract would be put in place until a new long-term provider could be found:

In response to this the decision was taken to bring forward the re-procurement of this service as outlined in this report.

The report recommended appointing a new provider for 31 months from 7th February 2023 until 31st August 2025 at a cost of £1.97m. The report then went on to describe how a new contract would be let through a competitive procurement process. It described why the council felt it was not appropriate to bring the service in-house:

This option avoids the additional resources required and relatively high costs associated with insourcing the service.

And explained why the contract would be let to a single supplier rather than establishing a Framework Agreement:

This option involves outsourcing the Family Time Service to a number of providers via framework agreement; this option may provide a competitive market for service delivery but carries a risk of inconsistent service delivery, additional administration from liaising with multiple suppliers and additional contract management obligations to the Council.

The report recommended approving the procurement of Family Time Services for Looked After Children for a maximum period of five years (3+1+1 years) at a cost of up to £3.44m.

Extension of Speech and Language Therapy Services

The report proposed awarding a new 16 month contract to Homerton Healthcare Foundation Trust (HHFT) for Speech and Language Therapy Services from 1st December 2023 - 31st March 2025 for the sum of £1,478,161. The report explained why the council was awarding this contract directly to HHFT without a competitive process:

The intention is to award a contract under Direct Award Process C of the PSR which allows for a new contract to be issued to the existing provider of a service without competition, provided that the current performance being delivered is satisfactory, the provider is likely to satisfy the proposed new contract, and the contract is not changing considerably.

The report explained that during this period a review of the service would be carried out:

During the contract period, the ICB will lead a review of the total SaLT service commissioned across the Council and ICB with the intention of identifying changes required to the service model and commissioning arrangements to best meet needs.

Extension of Young Parents Supported Accommodation Pathway

This report proposed extending an existing contract for the provision of the Young Parents Supported Accommodation Pathway for a period of 19 months, from 1st September 2023 until 31st March 2025. The report stated that the cost of this extension would be £557,326. The report explained that the contract needed to be extended to allow time to let a new contract through a competitive procurement process. It explained that when the council tried to let the contract in 2022 they received no bids that met the necessary standards. It explained that the preferred option was to let the contract to a single supplier rather than the other options that had been considered, including establishing a framework, or insourcing the service, for a variety of reasons. It stated that insourcing the service was not a viable option because:

Insourcing is not considered a viable option for the delivery of this service at this time. One of the main hurdles is the lack of resources and funding needed to effectively manage and operate the service in-house. There would be substantial logistical and operational barriers to the creation of an in-house service and the staffing resource is not currently available to support this.

It also stated that establishing a framework for the service would be too resource intensive and would not guarantee that placements would be available for service users. The report then recommended letting a new 5 year (3+1+1) contract for the Young Parents Supported Accommodation Pathway at a total cost of £1.71m.

Extension of Apprenticeship Framework

The report explained that the council has to pay the Government an Apprenticeship Levy, which can then be spent on apprenticeship training. The report explains that the council has previously procured apprenticeship training through frameworks, and recommended extending the existing apprenticeship training framework. It described how the council had previously used the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) Apprenticeship Dynamic Purchasing System (ADPS) framework, but ESPO had stopped providing this framework. It explained that the council would now use the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) and Crown Commercial Services (CCS) frameworks instead. The report then described how the Apprenticeship Levy is due to become a Skills Levy, which would allow the council to spend some of the money on non-apprenticeship training:

The upcoming Skills Levy will allow employers to allocate up to 50% of their levy contributions to non-apprenticeship training, with the remaining 50% dedicated to apprenticeships.

The report recommended approving the use of the YPO and CCS frameworks for procuring apprenticeship training, and the use of other frameworks as necessary. It also recommended that:

In the event that neither (a) nor (b) can be utilised, flexibility is required to use the current corporate Contract Standing Orders, following the Hackney Procurement Framework, where no existing contract or framework is in place.

Extension of Public Health Midwives Service

This report proposed awarding a contract to Homerton Health Foundation Trust (HHFT) for the provision of a Public Health Midwives service for a period of one year from 1st April 2024. The report explained that the service provided support to women in the community through pregnancy, and into the early postnatal period for up to 4 weeks. It explained that the council had previously been procuring the service from HHFT without a formal contract, but that the current arrangements would be regularised by the proposed contract. It explained that the council had chosen to directly award the contract to HHFT rather than running a competitive procurement process because it offered the best value for money:

The Homerton is based in the borough, is integrated in the local community and matches funds the service from its own budget. These factors provide represent best value that would be lost by awarding to a different provider through a competitive process.

The report recommended approving a contract award to HHFT for the Public Health Midwives Service for a period of 1 year from the 1st April 2024 for the sum of £170,000 per annum, including the option to extend for a further 2 years in annual increments of £170,000.