The meeting is scheduled to include reports on the award of contracts for sexual health services, a potential overspend on a building project, and the council’s procurement strategy for the Colville Heat Network.

Sexual Health Services

The Committee is scheduled to consider a report on the award of contracts for sexual health services across the borough, to be delivered by Homerton Hospital, City and Hackney Integrated Primary Care (IPC), and 47 community pharmacies. These services would cost the council £8,150,128 over five years. The report requests the committee's agreement to award the contracts without competition to the three providers. The report claims that the procurement process for these contracts has:

focused not only on ensuring local residents receive high quality and cost effective services but also ongoing community and wider social benefits delivered by local providers. The report argues that, although the services could theoretically be delivered in-house, doing so would be more expensive and reduce the quality of service provided. It says that: Insourcing would increase costs, delays, impact negatively on local partnership working and may not be achievable in terms of data sharing. The report highlights that, because the contracts would be funded by central government, there is a risk that budget cuts in future years will lead to reduced service delivery. To mitigate this, it says that: annual reviews of the service scope will enable changes to be made to the scope of the service ensuring that it can be delivered within the budget allocated.

Gayhurst Primary School

The Committee is scheduled to consider a report on the awarding of a contract for repairs to Gayhurst Primary School. The report asks for approval for a contract variation of £1,459,067.78 to cover the cost of replacing the school’s roof. The report says that the need to replace the roof was discovered following a survey by contractor Quinn Heritage Ltd, who are already on site conducting other repair work. According to the report:

it was identified a hidden small area of the pitch roof about a meter wide had slipped. The roof was at the end of its life and the majority of the nails had corrosion damage that had led to safety concerns of the roof collapsing. The report says that the total cost of the works is now £17.8 million and that Gayhurst Primary School and Mandeville Primary School were the only schools where the cost of repairs was significantly higher than originally forecast.

Colville Heat Network

The Committee is scheduled to consider a report about the Colville Heat Network (CHN). The report asks for approval for the Council to seek contractors to design, build, operate, and maintain the CHN. It also asks for the Committee to approve plans to seek a separate contractor to run the network’s metering and billing systems. The report explains that the CHN is intended to heat:

Britannia development, Shoreditch Park Primary School and Bridport Place. It claims that separating the work in this way will: achiev[e] the best balance between the capital cost of building the heat network and the operational and replacement cost as the equipment wore out over a 40-year period of operation. The report also reveals that the Council has been awarded a £14 million grant to fund the scheme by the Green Heat Network Fund. The report claims that, because the heat network industry “is quite small and undergoing many changes”, it will be cheaper and less risky for the Council to outsource its operation for the foreseeable future, rather than build up in-house expertise. The report does, however, claim that there is scope for the Council to take direct control of the metering and billing aspects of the scheme at some point in the future.

Early Years Catering

The committee is scheduled to consider a report on the awarding of a contract for catering in early years settings.

West Reservoir

The Committee is scheduled to consider a report about planned improvement works at West Reservoir in Hackney. The report asks the Committee to agree to the awarding of a contract for the planned works. The report recommends that the Council awards the contract to the contractor that scored highest during the procurement process. It describes that contractor as:

the most economically advantageous tender in accordance with the procurement objectives. The report does not reveal the name of the preferred bidder.

Supported Living Services

The meeting is scheduled to include a report on the procurement of the Council’s Supported Living Services (SLS) and Residential Open Framework. The report asks the Committee to approve the Council’s proposed approach to procuring the framework. It describes the framework as being intended to:

meet the needs of adults (18+) with learning disabilities, autism and/or mental health support needs who require support to live in the community. According to the report, 107 providers expressed an interest in the opportunity at the market engagement stage. The report claims that there is: an extremely high level of market interest in the opportunity, with many providers with specialisms and experience in different support areas. The report recommends that the Council seeks to appoint between eight and 12 providers to each of the framework’s lots. It argues that this will mean that: the Council will be able to work collaboratively with a smaller group of providers and there will be more accountability. It goes on to claim that this will: enable the council to develop longer-term strategic partnerships with providers that deliver good quality services. The report acknowledges that the proposed approach to procuring the framework: differs from the approach taken at the previous procurement in 2019/20 but claims that it represents: best value and will support the delivery of high-quality services.

The report also details the Council’s decision to outsource the provision of these services. It explains that the decision was made following a review of the Council’s “Sustainable Procurement and Insourcing Strategy” and claims that, because the service is made up of:

a range of very specialist services requiring staff with very specific skills, it would be too difficult to deliver in-house. The report claims that the Council: would be unlikely to be able to attract or retain staff with these skills and experience and that: setting up the service would require a significant upfront investment from the Council.