Agenda item

Report of Corporate Director of Growth and City Development

Councillor Hayes, Executive Member for Housing and Planning, introduced the report.

Alison Brown, Director of Property (Housing), presented the report and stated the following;

a.  The report seeks approval to implement a revised handheld power tools supply maintenance and management solution for Housing property services. The solution will be provided by an external supplier and managed through internal resources. The scope of the proposal is based on feedback from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), current regulatory requirements, and an analysis of existing arrangements. The aim of a revised approach is to enhance operational efficiency, ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, and deliver best value for money.

b.  Nottingham City Council (NCC) housing property services currently faces challenges with its hand-held power tool provision, maintenance and management system, which include inefficiencies, high costs, and compliance risks. We were working with non-standardised tools, which were provided directly by the workforce, leading to inconsistencies in approach to quality of handheld power tools purchased, frequency of maintenance and safety concerns, particularly regarding Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome and dust suppression. Our existing approach is not fit for purpose and an interim solution was put in place following a visit from the health and safety executive is not sustainable long term.

c.  Included within our revised approach is a proposal to enter into a contract with external tools supplier specialists for the provision, maintenance and management of handheld power tools. This would provide a range of benefits including access to improve technical capacity and expertise available to the Housing property service and wider NCC colleagues on tools areas including to mitigate expose to vibration and dust.

d.  The proposed specification within the contract will demonstrate that NCC as an employer has robust controls in place that meet responsibilities under the health and Safety at Work act 1974. Specifically, the control of vibration at work regulations 2005 and the control of substances hazardous to health regulations 2001 control of dust. Addressing this issue is a key part of the action plan created in response to the HSE Notice of Contravention dated 27 February 2024. The HSE described the contraventions as material. Having appropriate and robust controls in place will protect our workforce and residents from exposure to dust and vibration and reduce the likelihood of financial claims being made against us for failing against our obligations under Health and Safety regulations.

e.  Implementing a standardised, digitally enhanced handheld power tools solution will significantly enhance NCC’s operational efficiency, safety compliance, and cost-effectiveness. The investment in this solution aligns with NCC’s strategic objectives of improving service delivery and ensuring the well-being of its workforce.

f.  To fully support the implementation of the proposed changes in a timely manner, we will use additional funding of approximately £529,000 over the proposed contract term from HRA reserves.

g.  Implementing a new approach to the provision, maintenance and management of power tools will generate non-cashable efficiency savings of an estimated £638,000 in year 1 of full implementation.

Resolved to

(1)  approve spend of £1.3m of Housing Revenue Account (HRA) funds over a four year term for the implementation of a handhold power tools solution, including dust suppression provision, maintenance and management;

(2)  delegate authority to the Director of Property:

(a)  to meet any shortfall identified after the conclusion of the procurement exercise as a growth item through the annual budget process for 2025/26 without further recourse to HRA reserves;

(b)  to enter into a contract for a handheld power tools solution, including dust suppression provision, maintenance and management solution for an initial 2 years, with possible 1+1 extensions pending performance, to make a total contact term of up to 4-years following a compliant procurement exercise being completed. Noting that this will be with the support of the procurement team, demonstrating value for money, and is likely to be through an existing framework, however if this does not meet identified need, it will be through an open tender;

(c)  in consultation with procurement colleagues, to set up the required CPAs to cover the estimated £1.3m worth of tool solution services to be delivered through housing property services;

(3)  approve recruitment of a dedicated internal staffing resource to fully implement and manage the handheld power tools solution to ensure it continues to meet statutory and regulatory compliance, noting that any costs for the remainder of 2024/25 (likely to be from November 2024 to March 2025) will be met from either budget savings or HRA reserves, and that ongoing costs for this role will be included as a growth item in the 2025/26 budget round;

(4)  set the overall value of the advertised procurement opportunity up to a total value of £2.5m across the proposed contract term to allow flexibility and opportunity for growth in needs and other services areas in NCC to join the contract at a later date after completion of appropriate internal, consideration of risk and spend approval processes;

(5)  note the £638,000 non-cashable efficiency gains identified through improved efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in year 1.

Reasons for recommendations

h.  Improve Operational Efficiency - implement a streamlined process for tool management to reduce time and cost linked to equipment failure.

i.  Enhance Health and Safety - adopt tools and practices that mitigate health risks such as Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome and dust exposure.

j.  Ensure Compliance - Meet regulatory requirements and internal standards.

k.  Optimise Resource Allocation - Ensure best value for money through effective resource management.

Other options considered

l.  We have engaged with a number of national tools providers as part of informal market engagement exercise to provide feedback on possible solutions to our issue and to help inform a proposed scope and specification and delivery model which will be used as part of the procurement exercise. Discussion topics length of contract, and options within the tender such as supply and maintenance and supply only.

m.  Advice was sought from external providers and from discussions with staff on what equipment would best meet our needs such as vibration-damped tools, dust extraction systems, and effective ventilation solutions, tools tracking.

n.  We have established a cross-housing service division working group to oversee the timely implementation of the improvement actions proposed to the HSE.

o.  We have contributed to the NCC corporate health and safety group to consider existing arrangements that exist across the NCC for provision of handheld power tools, maintenance and management. This was to identify if we could adopt any existing practices already in place across NCC. However, it was agreed we had different needs and system used still required manual input form colleagues which if not used correctly under mines the data insight gained. All require some form of manual intervention in terms of action to be taken if for example trigger times were exceeded.

p.  The volume of staff in property services would also impact of the cost of implementing system and the volume and frequency of activities being undertaken requires a robust maintenance solution for equipment and tools. We have entered into a temporary leasing of tools for an identified list of work colleagues using existing contracts and provided additional dust suppression equipment.

q.  Based internal discussions and other feedback from external agencies the existing management arrangements used in other parts of NCC still require manual intervention between the system used and the trade colleagues so potential data insight benefits could be impacted if not used correctly. We will still need to have some form of user input system to record tool usage and trigger times. These trigger times are recoded by trade colleagues and are then monitored weekly by managers. Where required action is then being taken to move staff off activities to reduce trigger times. As part of the specification, we will include whether this element of monitoring can be automated but with reduced reliance from user input.