Agenda item

Karen Middlebrook, Head of Procurement, to present

Karen Middlebrook, Head of Procurement, presented a report providing an update on procurement activity since March, 2025.

In February 2025 the new legislation (Procurement Act 2023 (“PA23”)) governing public sector procurement activity was implemented for all new procurement activity commencing from the date of implementation.  Whilst the new legislation was in force, the old legislation (Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“PCR15”)) had not ceased to exist and would remain in force for as long as the last contract procured under the old regime was in existence.  For health related contracts linked to Public Health activity, the provisions of The Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime Regulations 2023 (“PSR”) were applicable.

The uptake of activity under PA23 and PSR had been slow as the Council had commenced a significant volume of large scale procurements before the changes came in to allow the legislation sufficient time to settle in.  However, since the last update to the Audit Committee (Minute No. 84 11^th March, 2025), the Council had now undertaken a range of procurement exercises under all the different applicable legislation.  It remained challenging due to the multiple pieces of legislation to ensure the correct processes were undertaken, notices published and terminology/language used but would become easier the more exposure the Council had in undertaking this activity.

The PA23 had also brought a duty to report twice yearly on the Council’s performance of paying its suppliers within 30 calendar days through the publication of a Payments Compliance Notice.  The first notice required publication before the 29^th April 2026 deadline covering the period 1^st October 2025 to 31^st March 2026.  This reported that the Council took an average of 12.30 days to pay with 94.08% of invoices paid within 30 calendar days during that period.

An analysis against the Yorkshire and Humber region local authorities had been undertaken where information was published which revealed that Rotherham was ranked 6^th.  Work was underway with Finance with regard to wider support to services to improve this position.

Procurement training continued to be delivered to officers across the Council with approximately 180 trained and a dedicated session to the Regeneration and Environment Directorate of over 60.

In recognition of the work referred to above and in response to a recommendation from the External Auditor’s Value for Money report, a Procurement Strategy had been developed for the period 2026-2031.  It set out 6 key themes:-

-        Delivering Social Value

-        Upholding Ethnical Procurement Principles

-        Ensuring Compliance and Good Governance

-        Strengthening Contract and Supplier Management

-        Supporting Financial Sustainability

-        Building a Strong and Diverse Supply Base

The Strategy needed to be considered as part of the wider commissioning lifecycle and all Services would have a role in delivering the activity.  It helped to frame the key priorities for the Service to better enable it to be understood by Services and the external supply market.

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·        There was no breakdown by organisation of payment performance; the target was based on the Government criteria that set out that all businesses were paid and payment reached their bank account within 30 days of the Authority receiving the invoice.  Efforts were made to prioritise the smaller businesses, however, the decision had been made 6 years ago that once an invoice was ready it was settled

·        The aim of the Strategy was to support local communities and deliver value for money, however, the local person may not be able to supply at the same rate as a large business or know how to find public sector opportunities/understand the legislation/documentation.  Work was taking place with Regeneration and Environment colleagues to provide business support opportunities through Gro for Growth so local businesses understood the opportunities of value for money and competition.  If they did unsuccessfully participate in procurement activity they were provided with detailed feedback as to the reasons why

·        The procurement process was an active challenge; there was emphasis in the Strategy and documentation, as well as changing the message in the commissioning processes, of contract management.  Training was taking place on contract management to emphasise the importance of service planners forward planning for contracts with the commissioning cycle an active part of how procurement plans operated

·        Training had taken place regarding the requirements of the new Procurement Act.  There were not many contracts that fell out of the contract compliance period, however, those challenges needed to be escalated and Service Directors held responsible for the contracts in their areas and actively looking to plan for them.  Internal Audit looked at those processes to ascertain the presence of forward plans and encouraged Service Directors to have that focus.  There had to be training and an understanding of contract rules and responsibility and changing that message in the organisation from contract to commissioning

·        Direct award of a contract was a compliant way to tender contracts and sometimes the most appropriate method  

·        A business, with a turnover of a certain threshold, was expected to publish its policy on modern slavery within their own supply chain and was why it was linked into procurement activity

Resolved:-  (1)  That the report be noted.

(2)  That the continued work taking place to continually improve commissioning and procurement activity and ensure compliance with legislation and relevant codes of practice be supported.

(3)  That future reports include a league table element to enable to ascertain the Authority’s position when benchmarking.