Issue - meetings

Report of the Head of Procurement. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate Services.

The report seeks approval to establish multiple Pan London Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) and to approve LB Haringey being the lead Authority on a pan London Legal Alliance Framework.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services introduced the report which sought approval of a three-month extension of a number of DPS categories associated with the provision of Adult Services, SEND, fostering, legal professional services and minor works up to the maximum period permitted under the Procurement Act 2023.

This decision was sought in advance of February 2025 when the new Procurement Act 2023 (Act) would come into force. The Act would abandon the establishment of DPS’s and replace DPS’s with Dynamic Markets; however, the Act prohibited any form of pre-selection criteria. The services outlined in the recommendations were service-related categories and were not able to use the Dynamic Markets. If the outlined decisions were not taken this would have significant impact on operations when procuring low value services, as services would need to undertake a process which was either open to the entire market and then undertake a highly administrative and complex assessment of capability, financial standing and any accreditation requirements at the point of tender or establish a framework agreement.

A significant advantage of using a DPS (or Dynamic Market) compared to a framework agreement was that suppliers could join at any time throughout the term of the DPS, whereas a framework agreement was generally closed to new suppliers.

This decision was urgently needed to meet the current borough priority of supporting businesses and local businesses as 90% of contracts were let through the Council’s DPS categories and awarded to small, medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

In addition, the report sought approval to procure a pan London legal alliance framework for the provision of legal services. Haringey was part of a consortia with other London boroughs who have agreed to jointly establish a legal alliance framework agreement for the provision of legal services. The procurement and establishment of a legal alliance framework agreement had been running for some years and members of the consortia take turns in being the lead authority to establish the framework agreement and act as the contracting authority. Haringey had been asked to be the lead authority for the next iteration of the framework agreement which was due to be advertised at the beginning of 2025.There was no financial impact when acting as the contracting authority

In response to questions from Cllr Hakata and Cllr Connor, the following information was noted.

-           Important to have a procurement system that was designed to protect SME’s. It was noted that the DPS was not just used in Haringey but a London wide system and used by public authorities. This also provided income to the borough as well as wider economy benefits. This decision protected low level contracts and meant suppliers could join at any time and the Council would not need to recreate the accreditation requirement when they apply for contract opportunities. If the decision was not taken forward, this would mean a significant administration burden on the Procurement department and supply chain, noting that over 90% contracts let through DPS go to SMEs, and 40%  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59