Issue - meetings

Report of the Director for Children’s Services. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families.

The award report requests Cabinet approval to proceed to award the new contract to the successful bidder following the outcome of the tender process.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families introduced the report. It was explained that school improvement and governance were vital to ensure high performing schools. It was explained that, in Haringey, the current service delivered school improvement related statutory functions on behalf of the Council in accordance with the Education Act 1996, but that the contract was due to expire in March 2025. It was explained that, in June 2024, the Cabinet agreed an option to proceed to open tender for a new school improvement and governor services contract. An open tender process had concluded approval was sought from Cabinet to award the contract to the successful bidder. The key elements of the tender were outlined and proposed the contract which included a series of key performance indicators to ensure the schools were supported, and also challenged in their work to raise pupil attainment and ensure they are delivering the best outcomes for children and young people was put forward.

In response to comments and questions from Cllr Emery, the following information was shared:

• It was explained that the provisions of the contract, school improvement, was within a niche market, and while it was an open tender, there was only one bidder for the contract.
  
  
• The Director for Children’s Services explained that they would provide a written response to the quantification of the final scores for Price, Quality and Social Value that were within the contract.
  
  
• The Director for Children’s Services explained that they would write to Members regarding the report’s definition of a Global Majority.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1.         Approved the award of a contract for the delivery of School Improvement and Governor Services contract to Supplier A for a 4-year period at a cost of £1,873,654

2.         Agreed that the contract will commence from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2029.

Reasons for decision

The current contract for the delivery of School Improvement and Governor Services expires on 31 March 2025 with no further options to extend.

In order to ensure that the service can continue to deliver local authority statutory and strategic functions for the whole period of the contract, the service will continue to be funded via the Dedicated School Grant: Central School Services Block (CSSB). The CSSB budget has pressures due to a forecast decrease in the allocation of CSSB of 2.5% per annum. Due to the forecast decrease in CSSB, no inflationary uplift can be made during the contract period.

Alternative options considered.

Option 1: Renew the existing contract with the current provider

Renewal of the contract to the existing provider following the expiry of the current contract without proceeding with an open competitive tender was an option considered and rejected for the reasons set out in the report dated 18^th June 2024.

Following a rigorous legal and procurement assessment of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) the conclusion reached was that renewal of the existing contract without competition would not be compliant with the PCR’s 2015 and this option  ...  view the full minutes text for item 110