Issue - decisions

Date of Decision:

18/12/23

Title:

Tenant Engagement Service Contract Re-tender 2024

Decision Maker:

(Including Job Title)

James Clark, Assistant Director of Housing 

Details of Specific Cabinet Delegation

or Delegation contained in the relevant Sub-Scheme of Delegation.

SECTION 4C3: STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF ADULT CARE, HOUSING AND PUBLIC HEALTH – DELEGATED EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS

2. Housing

(b) Contract and Service Development

(c) Housing and Estates

Sub-Scheme of Delegation: Assistant Director of Housing: In accordance with Financial and Procurement Procedure Rules, matters relating to the specification for works, goods and services, the seeking of estimates, quotations and tenders, the evaluation of the same and acceptance of tenders relating to contracts for works, goods and services in accordance with approved budgets or supplementary estimates.

Decision:

The Assistant Director of Housing authorises the re-procurement of the Tenant Federation Contract, commencing on the 1^st of April 2024 for an initial period of 3 years with the option to extend the contract for another year.

The value of the contract (inclusive of VAT):

£888,000 (Full 4 – year term)

£666,000 (Initial 3 -year term)

£222,000 (Annual Value)

Reasons for the Decision:

On the 15^th of August 2023, the Directorate Leadership Team agreed that a re-tender exercise to appoint a Tenant Engagement Service provider would commence and the successful organisation would be appointed to deliver the new contract from the 1st of April 2024.

On the 1^st of September 2023, the Cabinet Member for Housing and the Leader approved this decision.

Details of alternative options considered and rejected:

Option 1 - Bring the contracted and outsourced functions back in-house, investing the current contract budgetary value in staffing resources.

Option 2 - Commission additional services through our arrangements with the Neighbourhoods Team.

Both of the above options would in effect mean insourcing the tenant federation contract work, rather than re-tendering, which would have the following drawbacks:

Insourcing could mean that Tenant Engagement becomes less independent, that vital community knowledge and relationships are lost and that we no longer have the advantage of partnering with a smaller more agile organisation, able to apply for additional funding streams as required and work with tenants with a greater degree of flexibility.

The re-mobilisation costs and the additional work and resource needed to insource at a challenging time for the team would have caused huge disruption at a time when the Council were entering into a new housing inspection regime environment and the Tenant Engagement Team were working at capacity to achieve TPAS exemplar re-accreditation in 2024 and deliver the Tenant Engagement Framework outcomes.

Conflicts of interest declared by any Cabinet Member consulted by the decision maker which relates to the decision:

None known.

Dispensations Granted:

(If any)

N/A

Reports or parts of reports considered

Tenant Federation Contract Re-procurement, 1^ST of September 2023