Agenda item

To receive a presentation on Procurement Arrangements (including changes resulting from the Procurement Act 2023).

The Director of Commissioning and Interim Head of Strategic Procurement gave a presentation on Procurement arrangements and changes resulting from the Procurement Act 2023, a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Committee was advised that the act was due to come into effect in October 2024. The Committee was given an overview of the way that the Council seeks to procure goods, services, works and concessions and would help in understanding the Council’s requirements linked to the new Procurement Act, and also some of the requirements around compliance with the current legal arrangements. The team would be moving to the Finance Service from Commissioning at the end of September. A large proportion of the team were responsible for contract management within Adult Social Care. The Governance arrangements were outlined, including those for procurements above £30k which were placed on the regional portal ‘Supplying the Southwest’. Works above this but below the PCR 15 threshold could now be advertised more locally if appropriate. There were a number of process which procurement contracts needed to go through including recorded decision records. The changes in regulations through the Procurement Act 2023 were outlined. A number of issues were raised and responded to during consideration of this item, including:

Key Performance Indicators for Contracts – how often was the data captured to ensure that contractors were delivering. It was noted that the contract management would set these, but the timing may be different for different contracts. In many cases this would be monthly up to 6 monthly. Larger contracts were required to have at least 3 KPIs and for the performance information to be published.

Pipeline Contract Valuation Threshold – It was noted that the Procurement Board needed to make a decision on this and there were a couple of options being considered,

In reference to public statements made earlier in the meeting the Committee asked about the three lines of defence detection system being retrospective. The first line was that management was expected to ensure guidelines were followed and that there were no breaches, they could intervene at any point prior to the award of the contract. The second line was going through procurement for anything above £30k and the third was where internal audit would be involved. It was noted that the second and third lines were real time controls and Audit also provided advice and support to prevent things going wrong not just retrospective compliance checks.

The effectiveness of the three lines of defence. It was noted that there was a waivers report and the four new categories which were discussed in the presentation would be reported. Procurement would report breaches to internal audit and also consult on issues around financial regulations.

Changes due to the new regulations for those tendering for work were considered. It was noted that once approved as an exceptional person for a particular service this would cover all local authorities across the country. In terms of detail this remained to be seen but with three platforms currently registered, suppliers could register for which geographical areas they were interested in.

The change in requiring the most economically advantageous tender to the most advantages with a range of benefits including social value and how this would be manifest. It was noted that the Social Value of contracts would need to be relevant and proportionate to the subject matter of the contract. There was not currently a joined up approached to this and further thinking and development was required.

It was noted that if the Council was openly advertising for a procurement opportunity this would be published on the contract platform and emails were not sent to suppliers directly. 

The Chairman requested that the slides be circulated to all Councillors.