Agenda item

Sarah Barter, Head of Business Enablement explained and summarised the report.

The report gave an update on the evolution to date of the contract value of the Council’s existing contract with Liquidlogic Ltd (Liquidlogic) and sought approval for a variation of the contract value going forward.

 The Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Service noted that recommendation 3.2 of the report was seeking agreement for future variation in the contract value by a further £1,303,997 but this was contingency measure to meet  any future business requirements identified by Children’s, Adults and Finance Services and to not require a further Cabinet Member key decision. Assurance was provided that services were fully aware and considering the overall budget position of the Council and therefore this was a safeguarding measure.

In noting the above information and before considering recommendation 3.2, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services asked that the resolutions reflect that any increased spend over £50,000 on this contract be discussed and consulted on with her.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services,

RESOLVED

1. To note that since the award by Cabinet in July 2021 of the existing contract for provision of an Integrated Social Care Case Management and Financial System for a contract value of £3,270,081 over the 15-year contract period, further spend on additional functionality has had to be incurred during the implementation of the system which had been approved through the change control process.

2. To agree the increased the contract value by £448,043 to £3,718,124.

3. To approve, under Contract Standing Order 10.02.1.b), a variation in the contract value by a further £1,303,997 to £5,022,121 which would ensure the Council could continue to enhance the system to meet business requirements identified by Children’s, Adults and Finance Services in the future and can also cover RPI-indexed increases in certain contract prices provided for by the contract. 

4. Following approval of resolution 2 and 3 that increased spend of £50,000 on this contract by the Director be in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services.

Clerks note - Recommendation 3.2 in the published report was incorrectly designated the Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Wellbeing to take this decision and this was an error in drafting. The Forward Plan correctly assigned this to the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services.

Reasons for decision

This would take stock of the increase in the original contract value due to spend incurred during implementation.

This would provide the flexibility to enhance and meet required future functionality to support the needs of Adults, Children’s & Finance services.

This would ensure that the Council were operating a sustainable support model which included the capability to rollout system changes over weekends without requiring down time of the system business hours.

Alternative options considered

Do nothing

This would mean the Council would be unable to identify and implement improvements to the Liquidlogic system for the remainder of the contract period.

Retender

This would mean breaking the contract that is currently in place with Liquidlogic.

Retendering would mean losing the progress achieved through build and

implementation of the Liquidlogic system to reach the current state. It would also

suspend any development of the system during the tender process as we could not

know who would win the tender.