Agenda item

(To receive a report from Sophie Reeve, Assistant Director – Commercial, which invites the Board to consider a report on the review that has been undertaken to consider possible alternative commissioning approaches to the existing Serco contract, which is due to be considered by the Executive on the 2 June 2020.

Please note: Appendix One to Appendix A has not been circulated to the press and public on the grounds that it is considered to contain exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.  The press and public may be excluded from the meeting if the Board wish to discuss any of the information included within this appendix)

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Director – Commercial, which invited the Board to consider a report on the review that had been undertaken to consider possible alternative commissioning approaches to the existing Serco contract, which was due to be considered by the Executive on the 2 June 2020.

Members were informed that there was a further option to extend the Council's corporate support services contract with Serco for a further two years up until the 31 March 2024, which must be exercised by June 2020.

A review had been undertaken to consider possible alternative commissioning approaches to the existing Serco contract, as well as an extension of the Serco contract proposal along with a consideration of the market, Serco's performance, value for money and the Council's future commissioning intentions.

Having reviewed the options available, it was recommended that the Council extend their Corporate Support Services contract with Serco until 31 March 2024 for the reasons set out within the report.

Members considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·         The improved performance of Serco over the past 18 months had provided reassurance that the contract with Serco could be extended for a further two years to 31 March 2024. In addition, Serco had provided a lot of support and worked in partnership with the Council during the COVID-19 pandemic.

·         It had been planned to remove all obsolete IMT equipment from the estate by 1 April 2020, but this had not been achieved within the agreed timeline. Under the extended contract, Serco would release the Council from its obligation to remove obsolete equipment which would have resulted in an increase in costs to the Council to reflect the additional work caused by obsolescence. Obsolete equipment would need to be addressed over the next 12 months as the current situation had gone on for too long, and the Council could not go out to the market with obsolete equipment as it would lead to increased costs for the Council.

·         The current Lagan Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which supported the Customer Service Centre (CSC) was outdated and needed upgrading or replacing. Serco had offered to upgrade to a later version of Lagan at its own cost which would give an updated CRM system to improve delivery for customers. An analysis would be undertaken over the next couple of months to ensure it was the right technical solution and that there would be no unintended technology implications for the Council arising from the proposal.

·         The extension of the contract would enable some savings and cost avoidance amounting to approximately £5M over the next four years. The budgets for the additional two years to the contract in 2022/23 and 2023/24 had not yet been approved by the Council but would be set in the future based on the savings identified and current contract volumes. Complete assurance could not be provided as to the sufficiency of the budget, as the budget would be based on predicted volumes of activity whilst the contract charges would be based on the actual volumes of activity carried out. It was expected that the existing budget provision would be sufficient, however, any changes to either the contract or volumes could result in a cost pressure in the future.

The Board unanimously voted to support the recommendations to the Executive, as set out in the report.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Board support the recommendations to the Executive, as set out in the report;

2.    That a summary of the comments made above be passed on to the Executive in relation to this item.