Agenda and draft minutes

Commissioning and Procurement Executive Committee
Tuesday, 11th February, 2025 9.30 am

Venue: Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG

Contact: Mark Leavesley 

Items
No. Item

66.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

None.

67.

Declarations of interests

Minutes:

None.

68.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 220 KB

Last meeting held on 14 January 2025 (for confirmation)

Minutes:

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2025 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

69.

Membership

Minutes:

The Chair announced that Councillor Pavlos Kotsonis had resigned as an Executive Member and, therefore, was no longer eligible to be a member of this Committee.

70.

Corporate Landlord procurement requirements 2025-26 - key decision pdf icon PDF 319 KB

Report of Corporate Director for Growth and City Development

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Trevor Bone, Head of Building Services and Facilities Management, presented the report and stated the following:

 

a)  the report sets out Corporate Landlord Services, Building Services and Facilities Management teams’ procurement requirements for the financial year 2025-26;

 

b)  the Council has a statutory duty to be compliant with all applicable asset legislation in relation to its asset portfolio, and this duty is met by carrying out statutory testing and inspecting, planned, reactive and minor works on its asset portfolio;

 

c)  whilst works are performed in-house wherever possible, there are occasions where specialist contractors or additional resource is required, and the report sets out how those requirements are to be procured to provide a seamless ability to meet the Council’s statutory duty;

 

d)  there are several contracts which the Building Services and Facilities Management department use that are coming to the end of their term in March 2025 onwards;

 

e)  the contracts set out in appendix 1 require re-procurement to enable Corporate Landlord Services to keep the Council’s asset portfolio compliant with regulatory, legislative and insurance and, through the proposed procurement routes, the Council can continue to improve efficiency and service of supplier delivery across multiple operationally high-risk work streams and improve value for money for Directorates across the Council;

 

f)  our annual procurement programme has proven to be the best approach to securing a competent specialist supply chain with the lowest costs possible;

 

g)  Corporate Landlord Services need to award several framework agreements and contracts up to the value of £1,260,000 (as detailed in appendix 1) in conjunction with the council’s procurement team.

 

Resolved to

 

(1)  approve the proposed expenditure of at least £1m of the £3.1m planned maintenance budget for 2025/26, to be spent on services delivered through in-house provision;

 

(2)  delegate authority to the Director of Economic Development and Property to:

 

(a)  procure and award the frameworks and contracts as set out in appendix 1 to the value of £1,260,000;

 

(b)  award call-off contracts under the frameworks within established budgets, in compliance with the terms of the frameworks, without having to seek further approvals up to the financial limit for officer decisions in force at the time;

 

(3)  note that prior to awards of contracts other than provided for in recommendation 2(b) above, approval appropriate to the delegated authority limits set out in the Constitution will be sought.

 

Reasons for recommendations

 

a)  There are several contracts which the Building Services and Facilities Management department use that are coming to the end of their term in March 2025 onwards. The contracts set out in Appendix 1 require re-procurement to enable Corporate Landlord Services to keep the Council’s asset portfolio compliant with regulatory, legislative and insurance. Through the proposed procurement routes the Council can continue to improve efficiency and service of supplier delivery across multiple operationally high-risk work streams and improve value for money for Directorates across the Council. Our annual procurement programme has proven to be the best approach to securing a competent specialist supply chain with the lowest  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70.

71.

Purchase of software licenses and services for Microsoft products - key decision pdf icon PDF 330 KB

Report of Corporate Director for Finance and Resources

Minutes:

Paul Burrows, IT Change, Projects and Strategy Manager, and Darren Kidson, Interim Head of IT, presented the report and stated the following:

 

a)  Nottingham City Council uses Microsoft products for both end-user and server computing, consistent with the Council’s ICT Strategy;

 

b)  every 3 years licences are renewed, and the report seeks authorisation for renewal using an approved framework;

 

c)  in addition to licences, the Council also uses associated services, such as Microsoft approved technical support and consultancy services related to licensed products, to enable it to get the maximum value from its licences;

 

d)  the Microsoft purchasing model is based on actual licence consumption and is subject to annual review, during which licence volumes may be increased or reduced, and the volume oflicences to be purchased will be based upon consumption at the point at which procurement is made;

 

e)  Microsoft software licences are purchased as enterprise-wide agreements on a 3 yearly basis, with the current 3-year agreement ending on 30 June 2025, and licensing volumes are reviewed annually to confirm that they are correct and may be ‘trued-up’ or ‘trued-down’ accordingly. These annual reviews allow the Council to add or reduce the number of licences in use:

 

f)  the proposed spend in the report relates to renewal of the following elements that we purchase from Microsoft for a 3-year period:

 

  i.  the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and Server Cloud Enrolment licences for the use of Microsoft services that provide desktop and server software for the delivery of Council Services.  All users of computer services in the Council require their individual accounts to be licenced for use of products like Teams, email, word processing, spreadsheets and other office automation products, these products are covered by the Enterprise Agreement;

 

  ii.  the number of licences in use depends on the size of the Council and varies but is typically around 6,000. We will be expanding on the licensing we currently use to satisfy requirements in two additional areas, security and digital telephony. This provides access to security software within the Microsoft suite, and a digital telephony solution to satisfy service provision as analogue telephony services are ended;

 

  iii.  the Council also uses Microsoft operating systems and relational database management systems to support services, and these products are covered by the Server Cloud Enrolment. The current cost of the Enterprise Agreement is approximately 80% of the total spend with Microsoft;

 

  iv.  the Unified Support Agreement, which provides Microsoft support in the event of problems in the operation of Microsoft services that cannot be resolved by the Council’s IT Service, and this has been used recently to assist with a major incident that was affecting colleagues’ ability to connect remotely to services;

 

  v.  additional variable charges for services, e.g. the additional variable charges arising from the use of ‘cloud based’ storage and processing during the life of the agreement. These principally relate use of MS-Azure, Microsoft’s cloud service, which is used for both data storage and to host servers to provide services. These  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

72.

Extension for Homes to Inspire block contract for children in residential care - key decision pdf icon PDF 360 KB

Report of Corporate Director for Children’s Education Services

Minutes:

Councillor Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, introduced the report.

 

Elisa Flintoff, Contracts and Quality Improvement Manager, presented the report and stated the following;

 

a)  Nottingham City Council have a block contract for 23 units of accommodation with Homes 2 Inspire for the delivery of residential care to children in care. This contract is due to end on 31 March 2025;

 

b)  as all the available extensions within the contract have been exercised, approval is sought for a further extension for one year and of its associated budget. The extension will allow a robust review of the market and any related procurement processes as needed, with a view to having a new contract in place by March / April 2026;

 

c)  the Homes 2 Inspire ‘block residential care contract’ supports Nottingham City Council in meeting statutory duties around sufficiency, informed by the ‘Children’s Act 1989’, and supports children to maintain their social and educational networks in their own City;

 

d)  Homes 2 Inspire have been providing residential provision for children and young people that have been brought into the care of the City Council for almost ten years;

 

e)  while this contract has been for standard provision, Homes 2 Inspire have nevertheless been able to give homes to some of the more complex children, who have displayed behaviours relating to self-harm or at significant risk of exploitation over this period and have given those in their homes a safe nurturing environment in which they can fulfil their aspirations and potential.

 

Resolved to approve a 12-month extension of the current contract with Homes 2 Inspire, from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026, at a cost of £5.523m, for the provision of Residential Care Services for children and young people.

 

Reasons for recommendation

 

a)  No other provider currently has capacity to provide Nottingham City with 23 units of accommodation. Soft market testing (provider engagement) is required to fully understand the market alongside our longer-term needs.

 

b)  The Commissioning Team is considering different options for a replacement service that would offer an alternative to a standard block contract. This will require more consultation with the market to inform how providers can work with us to help with strategic aims.

 

c)  Direction of how we build sufficiency is changing around internal and external fostering and residential markets. Commissioning and Partnerships will need the requested 12 months to plan what is required from the external market for our Children in Care.

 

d)  A 12-month extension will enable the Commissioning Team to undertake a full review of the market to ensure any future contract meets the needs of children going forward (a tender is expected to go out around October 2025).

 

Other options considered

 

a)  Do not extend the contract and let the contract come to a natural end – This is not recommended as the contract will come to an end on 31 March 2025 and the service is required to continue to support our Children in Care.

 

b)  Undertake an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

73.

Fee Rates for Children's Services 2025/26 - key decision pdf icon PDF 366 KB

Report of Corporate Director for Children’s Education Services

Minutes:

Councillor Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, introduced the report.

 

Carla Gater, Contracts, Quality and Performance Service Manager, presented the report and stated the following;

 

a)  the report outlines proposed fee rates for children’s placement services for the 2025/26 period;

 

b)  in accordance with its contractual obligations, Nottingham City Council is required to review fee rates annually for services it is statutorily mandated to provide;

 

c)  communication with service providers will be conducted regarding these proposals, and all feedback will be thoroughly considered prior to the implementation of the new rates in April 2025. This approach aims to support a diverse and sustainable social care market, balancing financial responsibility with the imperative to maintain and enhance service quality for our children and young people;

 

d)  prior to 2024/25, uplifts have generally been awarded to all sectors within the care market. However, in 2024/25 consideration was given to applying the uplifts only to those sectors where there was a heightened risk or where sufficiency needs to remain consistent to meet demand of those entering into care. A similar approach has been taken for 2025/26, however, some other services that wrap around children were reviewed;

 

e)  in looking at the other services held by the Contracts Team for children’s services, no uplifts apply to these contracts for the following reasons:

 

  i.  advocacy – currently being re-developed and tendered this year;

 

  ii.  Safer Families has no uplift for the duration of the contract;

 

  iii.  secure placements set their own price, and Local Authorities have to use provider contracts;

 

  iv.  translation services are corporate and has no uplift clause for the duration of the contract;

 

  v.  ‘unregulated’ do not have uplift clauses, and placements are negotiated at the time of placement to achieve the best value for the Council;

 

  vi.  supported lodgings had a new contract in July 2024, with new prices submitted;

 

f)  the Council commissions children’s care placements (including residential care homes, supported accommodation and foster care) from external agencies through several contracted mechanisms. This includes collaborative framework agreements such as the D2N2 Children in Care (D2N2 CiC) Framework, the East Midlands Regional Framework, block contracting for residential and supported accommodation, and spot purchasing arrangements covering all accommodation sectors;

 

g)  decisions for price increases are based on a range of factors, such as the current market position, cost of living indices and Office of National Statistics data.

 

h)  specifically, consideration has been given to the National Living Wage, impact of changes to National Insurance and other pressures, such as the cost of living and pensions. This proposal also considers the Medium Term Financial Plan position and other financial pressures;

 

i)  under the D2N2 CiC Framework, weekly prices can increase annually, at the discretion of D2N2, by 1.5% or CPI, whichever is the lower. Should CPI rise above 3%, the Contracting Councils will review the annual increase. The current CPI is 2.6% as of December 2024. The D2N2 CiC framework is joint with Derby City, Derbyshire County, and Nottinghamshire  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.

74.

Exclusion of the public

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information

Minutes:

The Committee agreed to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, as defined in Paragraphs 3 and 5 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

75.

Exempt appendix - Fee rates for Children's Services 2025-26

Minutes:

The Committee noted the exempt appendix to minute 73 above.