Decision details

The current contract for the servicing and maintenance of Automatic Doors, Roller Shutters and Car Park Barriers is due to end. The contract covers equipment within the Council’s corporate estate and a number of Sheffield schools who subscribe to the Councils statutory servicing package. The servicing and maintenance of this equipment is required under health and safety legislation.

Procurement of a contract to inspect, service and maintain Automatic Doors, Roller Shutters and Car Park Barriers across the Corporate buildings estate and Sheffield Schools who subscribe to the Councils statutory servicing package.

Sheffield City Council has statutory duty under the Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 to ensure work equipment is safe for use, maintained in a safe condition and inspected to ensure it is correctly installed and does not subsequently deteriorate. The Council has no in-house expertise to undertake this work and the current contract cannot be extended.

That the Executive Member for Finance and Resources:

1. Approves the Council procuring the contract(s) for the inspection, servicing, testing and repairs including statutory compliance assessments of Auto Doors and Roller Shutter Doors across the corporate buildings’ estate and a number of Sheffield Schools who take up this provision, following a compliant tender exercise as outlined in this report.  This will ensure that the ongoing and mandatory compliance services provision for the Council and volunteering schools continues; and

2. Delegates authority to the Executive Director of Place, in consultation with the Director of Finance and Commercial Services and the Director of Legal and Governance to:

a. decide the award of the new contracts to the most economically advantageous tenderers chosen by the Council following the procurement exercise as outlined in this report;

b. take all other decisions necessary in order to meet the aims, objectives and outcomes of this report which are not already covered by existing delegations in the Leaders Scheme of Delegation.

The procurement will enable the Council to:

• Have a compliant and flexible mechanism in place to fully meet the legal obligations and service requirements

• Harness any immediate savings and economies of scale that can be realised by re-engaging the market, any savings realised that can be cashable in nature will contribute to the services’ savings target.

·       Realise the Council’s Social Value ambitions by driving further positive value-added impact through this supply chain.

Alternative Option 1 – Do not Procure.

If the Council did not carry out this procurement then the Council would be in breach of our statutory duty and therefore this is not considered an option.

We are also bound by the PCR 2015 and Council Governance to conduct a procurement where the level of financial spend indicates this, alternatives around the route to market will be options appraised, considered and benchmarked and fully documented in the Procurement Strategy.

Alternative Option 2 – Extend the contract(s) with the current supplier.

The current contract expired on the 31^st March 2021 and there are no further compliant extensions possible under the contract. A short-term waiver is currently in place for continuity of service and statutory compliance requirements.

Alternative Option 3 – procure via a fully compliant Framework. 

Whilst these allow access to pre-qualified suppliers and much of the due diligence around their appointment has been previously managed many are national suppliers and we feel there is a local market to tap into – there are a number of suppliers in the Sheffield area who could offer these services and by using an existing third-party framework these potential suppliers would be excluded.

We require a reactive and responsive service across all compliance requirements and feel this could be best met in part locally. In addition, we have extensive Health & Safety requirements and adherence to these needs to be evidenced via the tender, subsequent contract documentation and ongoing contract management.

Additionally, the use of the Sheffield City Council service contract(s) will offer the greatest flexibility for service delivery where peaks and troughs can be managed, and third-party support can be tailored to supplement the in-house capability and flex with this as services move to more self-delivery over time. For these reasons the recommendation is to compete the procurement in our own right and on our own terms with our own tried and tested methods of ensuring compliance to Health and Safety and a number of other required competencies.