Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the open meeting held on 13 October 2020 be confirmed as an accurate record.

None was declared.

The Chair informed Panel Members that Councillor Sorba, Chair of the Children and Young People Select Committee had asked for this report to be submitted to this Panel for consideration.

Councillor Sorba said that given the current tight financial constraints under which Lewisham now operates, he had requested that contract extension tenders be submitted to this Panel on a routine basis. He asked the following questions.

1       Could officers reassure members that this contract was the best value for money?

2       Had there been a full investigation into the in-house options; and

3       Should these works go out to tender? Would local businesses in Lewisham have an equal opportunity to bid for the works or would previous contractors have an advantage.

The Project Manager said that Lewisham had moved towards insourcing some of the services that had originally been outsourced. The funding received over the past few years to fund the schools minor works programme had reduced over time and was not guaranteed in the future. The benefit of outsourcing this technical service, was that the contract could be broken after a year if the funding was no longer available.

The project manager advised that public contract regulations 2015, does not allow officers to favour Lewisham based businesses, because all contractors must be treated the same. However, contractors may be asked how they would include social values as part of their contract in the tender assessment. These questions would consider what added value could be brought to the local community and the local economy. Officers could set targets with the contractors to include a minimum value of contracts to be secured by the businesses. Targets for contractors could also be set around accredited training for local people.

The project manager said that previous contractors would not have an advantage based on works undertaken for Lewisham in the past. There had been discussions with colleagues in the local labour and procurement teams regarding maximising the value from the contract for local residents and local businesses and there would be a focus on shaping the social value questions to obtain the most out of the contract.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Noted.

The following is a summary of the discussion at the closed meeting.