The Panel received a report on the Council’s current
commissioning arrangements including:
- An overview of best practice relating to
insourcing
- An update on developments relating to the
implications of COVID-19 on the Council’s commercial
activities
The Strategic Director explained that the Council was a
commissioning organisation taking a strategic approach to ensure
that the best performance was achieved for the most competitive
price for the delivery of services.
In the commissioning process, all mechanisms of service
delivery were considered, and a range of outcomes were possible.
Many of the Council’s outsourcing arrangements had continued
to provide high quality, value for money services, however in
recent times a few smaller services had been brought back in
house. As a consequence, the Council
had been required to review its approach to effective insourcing
and to gain an understanding of the best practice in this
area.
The report detailed the 4 key phases involved in this
process and the considerations that the Council takes when
undertaking effective insourcing programmes.
The Strategic Director also provided an update on the
effect of COVID-19 on commercial activities affecting the Council,
as well as suppliers and service providers to the Council. The
Report detailed the time limited support which was made available
to third party providers to ensure ongoing service continuity,
which as restrictions lifted was withdrawn. The implications of the
pandemic on the commercial forward plan were also set out, with
details of action taken and the impact on major contracts due for
renewal.
Members raised a number of questions which were responded
to as follows:
- The Panel was assured that appropriate assessment,
evaluation and monitoring was incorporated into the commissioning
processes which had led to a re-assessment and a change of approach
in respect of some contracts. The Assistant Director for
Transformation and Commercial (Assistant Director) had a key
responsibility for procurement and contract management and was
closely monitoring the performance of contracts.
- The Assistant Director explained that he was
working with the Assistant Director for IT and Digital on a
portfolio of requirements to develop the IT approach.
- The Panel received an explanation of the category
management approach for the procurement of contracts and services;
how this was currently being developed and the benefits for the
Council going forward.
- The Assistant Director envisaged that in the
future District Councils might be able to benefit from various
tools and purchasing channels that the Council was acquiring. He
also confirmed that social value was being factored into the
calculations for the above.
- It was confirmed that the software Microsoft Power
BI was currently being used by Public Health and that they were
working together to ensure that the technological benefits were
able to fully utilised.
- The IT team were praised for their recent
achievements and performance. The Strategic Director responded to a
question about the impact on these staff of being outsourced and
then insourced again. The Panel was informed that the process had
impacted staff in different ways depending on their stage of career
and aspirations. All staff had benefitted from an upskilling
process and it was important that this training was maintained. The
Assistant Director was committed to developing the Team, much of
which could be done in-house.
- Due to COVID-19, there had been a delay with the
tendering of a number of key contracts, it was agreed that the
Panel would be provided with details about whether these contracts
had now expired and the potential impact on commercial benefit and
the Council’s Budget of this. The Strategic Director
reassured the Panel that the Government legislation had allowed
contracts to continue on the previous terms, meaning there would be
a notional risk to losing value. Also, the Team was always seeking
to ensure that best value was achieved in terms of performance and
costs and was now able to revert to ‘normal’ activities
having been heavily involved with pandemic related work in recent
months.
- In respect of the Council’s major contracts,
such as Ringway, the Panel requested that details of these,
including their associated timelines be provided to
Members. The Panel was informed that
there was work currently being carried out on the engagement
process to ensure that when contracts were due for renewal, the
preparation was in place to ensure an efficient and productive
commissioning process was achieved.
The Chairman thanked the Team for all their efficient work
in recent months.