Decision details

It is recommended that the Assistant Director for Housing approve the award of contract to Beacon Partnership LLP for the value of £159,460 exclusive of VAT, as allowed by Contract Standing Order 8.01 and 9.07.1c) to provide the Housing Systems Consultancy services for a period of 68 weeks

Like other Local Authorities, Haringey Council has not built at scale for forty years. As a result, individual and institutional expertise has been lost. This is a fundamentally new challenge for the Council, and it has been recognised from the outset that at key points in the programme specialist expertise will have to be procured on a consultancy basis.
There are long term plans for the growth of the programme team however, these long-term growth plans are being dealt with as part of a wider re-structure of the Housing Delivery Team which is ongoing. There is a need to provide the services now as temporary basis until the restructure is completed to ensure continuity of the service.
Beacon has relevant skills and experience to provide the services allowing for the programme continued delivery.

An alternative option to appoint permanently to the role cannot be considered as the Housing Delivery Team is currently going through a re-structure. Therefore, any recruitment is on hold until the re-structure plans have had full approval at which point the Council will look to recruit to this role full time.
The Council could carry out this work internally. This option was rejected because the Council does not currently have the necessary in-house experience or expertise.