Decision details

A key decision was made by the Leader on 26 September 2018 approving, amongst other things, the re-procurement of a number of housing related support services. This report now seeks approval of the procurement strategies for those re-procurements in accordance with the delegation made by the Leader in her decision.

The Executive Director, People Services, approves the procurement strategies for the housing related support contracts as outlined in the report.

To enable the Council to run a short term re-procurement of housing the related support contracts from 1 April 2019 to 30 September 2020 to enable earlier termination in the event that a new service delivery model is ready for implementation.

This strategy will allow flexibility to extend contracts at the Council’s sole discretion. The Council anticipates that this may not be required but it is prudent to at this point ensure that the Council has flexibility in the event that unforeseen circumstances lead to a delay in implementation of a new strategic approach.

Option 1 – An alternative option that was considered was to re-procure all contracts so that they had an end date of 30 September 2019. This option has been rejected because, at best, this gives only 11 months to conduct a potentially complex service redesign, commissioning and implementation process. If the process is not completed by that date extensions or further re-procurements would then be required at potentially short notice, not in line with the forward plan and at extra cost.

Option 2 – An alternative option considered was to allow some, or all, of the contracts to expire and transfer the service delivery from the current provider to the Council. This option has been rejected because the services are complex (for example use of buildings the Council does not own), and include a significant range of resources and staff. It is estimated that this option would take many months to implement, and is not a viable short term option.