Agenda item

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and the City Centre

Steve Oakley, Acting Director for Commissioning and Procurement, introduced the report presenting an update of the Nottingham City Council Procurement Plan for 2021 – 2026, which sets out the Council’s planned programme of procurement activity for all goods, works and services over this five-year period.

Resolved to

(1)  note the Nottingham City Council Procurement Plan 2021 – 2026;

(2)  note that the Procurement Plan is indicative of planned procurement activity and timescales, which may be subject to change dependent on the outcomes of the strategic commissioning process, service budgets and priorities and the full consideration of procurement options for each requirement;

(3)  note that the outcomes of procurement activity undertaken in accordance with the Plan during 2020/21 will be reported at the end of the year.

Reasons for recommendations:

·  A Procurement Plan was initially developed to align the planning of procurement and contracting activity with the programme of Strategic Reviews of commissioned services. It was first reported to Commissioning Sub Committee in May 2012 and has subsequently been maintained and reported routinely.

·  In April 2020, a review was undertaken of planned procurement activity in the light of the COVID-19 outbreak, to determine whether planned tenders should proceed or be paused due to the impact of the pandemic. It was decided to pause some non-essential procurement activity to enable resources to be focussed on the Council’s key priorities, in particular providing support for Social Care delivery. Additionally it was identified that due to the disruption to supplier markets, providers may have difficulty participating in formal tenders, and there was likely to be a negative impact on pricing or the viability of any tenders received. For those procurement projects that were paused, the Procurement Team continued to work with client Departments to consider the longer term sourcing options and to agree plans for securing continued delivery through a compliant arrangement as soon as possible.

·  Procurement activity has resumed as appropriate during the latter part of 2020/21, and the Procurement Plan has been refreshed to set out planned activity for the period 2021-2026.  It presents planned procurement activity across the Council; showing the anticipated commencement and completion dates and key stages for each project. It is presented under the three procurement categories managed by the Procurement Team:

o  ‘People’ - commissioned services for citizens including: social care and support for adults and children, community, public health and education

o  ‘Places’ – including: major projects, minor works, highways, school capital works, safety and compliance, operator services and temporary structures

o  ‘Products’ – including: transport, energy, waste, environmental services, professional services, ICT, soft facilities management and business support.

·  The Procurement Plan is indicative of anticipated procurement activity and may be subject to change, for example following commissioning decisions or due to changes to service budgets and priorities. In each commissioning process, the procurement options are considered based on a number of factors, including: future need for the goods, works or services, model of provision, consideration of ‘Make or Buy’, compliance with the Council’s financial regulations and Public Procurement Regulations, and the overall risks, costs and benefits of tendering. It should be noted that for some projects in their early stages, procurement timescales are not yet known therefore are not showing on the plan.

·  All procurement activity is conducted in accordance with the core principles of the Nottingham City Council Procurement Strategy 2018-23:

o  Commercial efficiency

o  Citizens at the heart

o  Partnerships and collaboration

o  Governance, fairness and transparency

o  Ethical standards

o  Innovation and improvement.

Other options considered:

·  Do nothing. This would impact upon the delivery of the Council’s procurement

activity across all goods, works and services. It would risk non-compliance with the Council’s Financial Regulations and Contract Procedure Rules, and the UK Procurement Regulations due to procurement activity not being undertaken in a timely way and contracts needing to be extended beyond their expiry date. In relation to commissioned services, it would impact upon the alignment of procurement activity with the programme of commissioning reviews undertaken within Strategy and Resources. For these reasons, this option was rejected.