Agenda and draft minutes

EXTENSION OF CONTRACT WITH THAMESREACH FOR THE HARINGEY STREET OUTREACH TEAM (HSORT), Cabinet Member Signing
Thursday, 9th March, 2023 10.30 am

Contact: Felicity Foley, Committees Manager  2919, Email: felicity.foley@haringey.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

None

2.

Declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

 

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

 

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

 

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

Minutes:

None

3.

Extension of contract with Thamesreach for the Haringey Street Outreach Team (HSORT) pdf icon PDF 371 KB

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning considered the report which sought approval to extend the Haringey Street Outreach (HSORT) contract for the period 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024, as allowed under Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1(b).

 

The extension of the contract would allow sufficient time for a full re-tendering process to take place by the end of the contract.

 

The Cabinet Member commented that she had attended the rough sleeper count with an officer from Thamesreach and was impressed with his knowledge of the area and relationships with the rough sleepers in the borough.

 

The Cabinet Member RESOLVED

 

1.            To approve, in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1(b), the extension of the contract with Thames Reach Charity for Haringey Street Outreach Service (HSORT) from 01/04/23 until 31/03/24.  The aggregated contract value including the extension is £620,520.

Reasons for decision

 

This extension is needed to continue providing a street outreach service to support people experiencing rough sleeping off the streets and into accommodation.

 

Due to increased flow on to the streets and funding from the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) administered by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC), this proposed extension will better meet demand for the service which in turn will enable the Council to meet its strategic commitments to residents around rough sleeping and single homelessness.

 

Funding for the Haringey Street Outreach Team is via the Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022-2025. It is ringfenced solely for this purpose and can be used only to commission Thames Reach Charity Ltd to deliver a street outreach team. Thames Reach were identified in the bid as the partner organisation and the bid was approved by DLUHC on this basis.

 

Financial provision exists within the Housing-Related Support budget to meet the additional costs of this variation.

 

Alternative options considered

 

The Council is not statutorily required to provide these services. It would therefore be legal not to approve the extension proposed and let the contract lapse. However, the Haringey Borough Plan (2019-2023) sets out a commitment to ending rough sleeping in Haringey and the Council has received funding from DLUHC to do so, as such it is in the Council’s best interests to approve the proposed variation.

 

It would be possible to insource the service, and this was explored as part of the tender process for the main contract. However, due to existing implementation and insourcing commitments made by the Housing Related Support Service, it is not possible to insource the street outreach team as we do not currently have the required specialism and the service wouldn’t be financially viable. What’s more the current contract is due to expire at the end of March 2023, and therefore additional time is required in order to go out to tender or to in-source the service. The intention is for the Council to revisit the viability of insourcing of the service in the mid-term future.