Decision details

The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the overall position of the Cleaning Services Insourcing Project, specifically in relation to the impact of COVID-19 on the project; to identify risks relating to a 1^st July 2020 insourcing, including potential options for a later insource date delivery; and to obtain approval from the Executive Director, Place, for the recommendations in the report.

To:-

(a)  approve a six month extension to the Cordant contract which will facilitate insourcing and deal with unanticipated issues so the process can be completed before the end of this year; and

(b)  require that the contract extension has a break clause that can be exercised after three months to allow insourcing at 30 September 2020; and where for good reason this is not possible, insourcing should occur on 31 December 2020.

The following challenges have had an impact on achieving delivery timescales:-

• COVID-19 pandemic
• Facilities Management MER
• Quality of information supplied

It is recommended that due to the risks identified in the report and further unknown COVID-19 implications, that the option to extend the current Cordant contract for a period of 6 months, with a break clause at 3 months, is taken forward. A revised transfer date of 01/10/2020 would be the new target date.

The extended timescales will allow the project to address these challenges and facilitate a thorough and legally compliant staff insourcing exercise.

Alternative options considered are set out as follows:-

Option 1 - Continue with 1st July 2020 transfer of cleaning services taking into account the identified challenges. Considering the timescales and pressure on existing resources, this option was not recommended.

Option 2 - Re-tender for contract. This option was considered to be viable and also a cost effective way to move forward in the short term.  However, taking into account the benefits of insourcing for the long term and also for the community, this option was not recommended.