Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Cabinet Member for Homes & Gateway Services, Councillor Jane Avis

Cabinet Member for Resources & Financial Governance, Councillor Callton Young

Cabinet Member for Croydon Renewal, Councillor Stuart King

Officer: Executive Director Place, Shifa Mustafa

Key decision: No

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To approve the procurement strategy detailed in the report for an open procurement process to be undertaken in order to appoint a single provider in respect of:

            Lot 1 cleaning services to a maximum budgeted value of £12,040,817.25

            Lot 2 security services to a maximum budgeted value of £7,043,804.40

For a proposed contract term of 4 years with options to extend for two 1 year extension periods (1+1).

The Cabinet Member for Resources & Financial Governance (Councillor Callton Young) informed Members that Cabinet were being asked to approve a procurement strategy in order to appoint a single provider in respect to corporate cleaning and security services. It was noted that the current contract expired in July 2021.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that the council was under a legal obligation to provide clean safe places for employees and to meet their security needs. The cleaning and security contracts related to a variety of premises including corporate buildings, housing, temporary accommodation and social care related properties.

It was noted that a comprehensive commissioning review, pre-market engagement and spend analysis had been carried out by officers to inform the proposed procurement strategy. Whilst engaging with key stakeholders lessons had been learnt and captured to inform the procurement strategy to include flexibility to future proof the contract. The pricing schedule, it was reported, would allow for appropriate demand led management arrangements to be applied and would enable service to be increased and decreased in accordance with the council’s requirements. The Cabinet Member further stated the implementation of a strategic relationship and performance management, in accordance with the council’s contract management framework would be strengthened within the proposed contract.

Following the outcome of pre-market engagement it was noted that there was an apparent preference for a lead provider approach to be applied for each lot who would be responsible for the delivery of all respective cleaning and security services as part of the contract for that lot. It was also determined from the findings of the commissioning options review that the adoption of the open procedure of Procurement & Commissioning Regulations would enable small and medium sized enterprises to tender alongside existing providers.

To ensure the council achieved competitive pricing submissions with quality standards applied, the Cabinet Member noted that the report proposed to deviate from the council standards of 60% quality and 40% price ratings. Rather, it was proposed to apply a weighting of 50% quality and 50% price in accordance with regulation 19.

The Shadow Cabinet Member of Culture, Leisure & Sport (Job Share) (Councillor Vidhi Mohan) queried the figure at paragraph 2 of the report in respect of the value of the cleaning contract. It was noted that estimated annual value was reported to be £1 million, however the maximum value was £12 million. Further queries were raised in relation to the security contract which listed to be £1.1 million at a total cost of £7 million over 6 years. Concerns were raised that over the previous years the contacts had cost £7.8 million and £4 million for the cleaning and security contracts respectively. As such, the Shadow Cabinet Member queried why the value of the contracts had increased and whether this was due to a change in scope.

In response, the Cabinet Member had confirmed that there had been significant changes in scope of the contracts. More properties had been acquired by the contract since 2017 and more recently, there had been an increase in the legal obligation around cleaning of properties. The Director of Commissioning & Procurement (Rachel Soni) advised that the contract figures were due to aggregate values and took into account inflation and London Living Wage increases. It was confirmed that further details on the values would be shared with the Shadow Cabinet Member.

The Cabinet Member for Sustainable Croydon (Councillor Muhammad Ali) stated that it was encouraging that there was a clear intention to use social value as one of the key indicators. Furthermore, he highlighted the need to work with the council’s partners and contractors to achieve the goal of being sustainable and carbon neutral by 2030 and welcomed that inclusion within the contract.

The Shadow Cabinet Member for Homes & Gateway Services (Councillor Lynne Hale) queried what specific checks would be made to ensure value for money was achieved and how the council would ensure the contract was flexible to take into account asset disposals. In response, the Cabinet Member confirmed that checks would be taken out to ensure value for money was achieved under the contract and procurement framework. In terms of flexibility of the contract, the Cabinet Member confirmed that the contract would allow for any increased or decreased in the size of council’s estate, and thus would be flexible.

The Leader of the Council delegated authority to the Cabinet to make the following decisions:

RESOLVED: To approve the procurement strategy detailed in the report for an open procurement process to be undertaken in order to appoint a single provider in respect of:

Lot 1 cleaning services to a maximum budgeted value of £12,040,817.25

Lot 2 security services to a maximum budgeted value of £7,043,804.40

For a proposed contract term of 4 years with options to extend for two 1 year extension periods (1+1).