Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

The County Council's Commissioning Arrangements

Minutes:

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was made available to third party providers to ensure ongoing service continuity, which as restrictions lifted was withdrawn.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.

 

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