Agenda and draft minutes

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 The Chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Cabinet Member referred to the filming at meetings notice and this information was noted.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence. 

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear).

 There was no urgent business.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were none.

To request approval to award a construction contract for refurbishment and extension works at Alexandra Primary School.

To request approval to issue a letter of intent representing 10% of the contract sum.

The Cabinet Member RESOLVED

1. Approve, pursuant to contract standing order (CSO) 9.07.1 (c) an award of contract to undertake refurbishment and extension works at Alexandra Primary School based on a tender contract sum of £902,129.37.

2. Approve a client contingency as set out in Part B of this report which will be strictly managed under change control governance arrangements.

3. Approve the issuance of a Letter of Intent up to a value of £100,000.00, pursuant to CSO 9.07.3. This is detailed in Part B.

Reasons for decision

In February 2024, Cabinet approved Alexandra Primary School to provide 10 SEND places with a Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties (SEMH) focus. The places would be provided for key stage one (KS1) children with Complex Needs as part of the Safety Valve Programme.

A feasibility study was completed in early 2024, which identified the existing former caretakers building as having sufficient capacity to deliver the 10 SEMH places. Detailed design work has been undertaken, which had set out the specifications for the refurbishment and the extension to the building.

A standard building contract was recommended as the most efficient solution to meet the project deadline of September 2025.

Working with the Strategic Procurement team, a competitive tender has been completed. The Council benefited from strong market interest and nine tender submissions were received. The detailed breakdown of the tender evaluation is included in Part B of the report.

The preferred bidder met the quality requirements set by the Council, had responded to the technical requirements of the tender and offers a contract price that represented value for money. The award of the contract would allow the Council to work towards providing the additional 10 SEND places at Alexandra Primary School by September 2025.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing – This would result in Haringey failing to meet its commitment to deliver additional SEN spaces by September 2025 under the Safety Valve Programme. This would expose the Council to high revenue costs to provide the necessary school places outside of the borough and would mean that no savings would be realised through the Safety Valve programme for the ten places this project will provide. It would also mean that the positive outcomes for resident’s wellbeing will not be realised either as some residents will continue to travel outside of the borough to secure an education.

In-house – There was currently no resource within the Council that had the capacity, specialist expertise or qualifications to deliver this service.

Item 8 is likely to be subject to a motion to exclude the press and public be from the meeting as they contain exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraph 3, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

Item 8 was subject to a motion to exclude the press and public be from the meeting as it contained exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by Section 12A of the Local Government Act 1985); paragraph 3, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.

The Cabinet Member considered the exempt information.