Unite have received a response on behalf of the Council indicating that it is not prepared to accept the “Fair Deal for Public Services” Procurement Strategy (set out below).
Members are asked to consider the specific points raised in the strategy and advise which aspects they would be prepared to accept?
Procurement Strategy
• A full Service Review to assess how in-house provision can be improved and enhanced, should be carried out before a decision is made to undertake an options appraisal
• The local authority’s Corporate Procurement Strategy should include Protocols on employment policies, trade union and service user engagement in the procurement process
• Contract award criteria should have a minimum 50% quality with technical criteria and price accounting for the remainder
• Quality standards and the methods by which they will be achieved and maintained should be a key part of the evaluation process. A public statement detailing the approach should be issued before the award of the contract
• Regular and rigorous monitoring throughout the contract period with monitoring staffing costs accounting for a minimum of 2 per cent of the annual contract value.
General
• Where practicable common rights for directly employed and contracted out workers
• No imposed zero hour contracts
• Commitment to minimise use of agency staff.
• Commitment to abide by the agency worker legislation.
• Adoption of Living Wage Foundation status.
In-house Services
• Commitment to maintain national agreements
Contracted out services
• No downward harmonisation in contacted out services
• Maintenance of full trade union rights and facilities in contracted out services
• Contracted out workers protected by council union oversight committee
For clarification, the items headed “General”, “In House Services” and “Contracted Out Services” are all sub sections of the Procurement Strategy.
Minutes:
Mr Dave Starling (LBB Head of Corporate Procurement) attended to answer questions pertaining to the Procurement Strategy. The case for the Staff Side was presented by Gill Slater (LBB Regeneration and Transformation Service).
Ms Slater outlined issues that had been identified previously concerning particular contracts and asked if Members would be prepared to review the Procurement Strategy at the Contracts Working Party meetings. The Chairman responded to this by commenting that the Staff Side had previously been asked to produce a business case but had failed to do so.
Mr Starling outlined LBB’s Procurement Strategy and statutory obligations. He explained that LBB contracts would normally have a minimum 40% quality content and would comply with all statutory requirements.
Cllr Angela Wilkins referred to the information that had been submitted on the agenda concerning the “Fair Deal for Public Services Procurement Strategy”. She stated that the question raised was what aspects of the Strategy LBB would be prepared to accept. She requested that a blanket response be avoided, and that Members constructively consider what aspects may be reasonable to adopt.
The Director of Human Resources felt that some of the issues raised were red herrings, and noted that every contractor had to comply with agency worker legislation. It was the case that new legislation was in place to deal with the issue of Zero Hours contracts. He expressed the view that LBB could not instruct a contractor how to behave.
Cllr Wilkins responded that the Director was not serious in his response, and was not answering comprehensively. The Chairman commented that the Employer’s side were taking the concerns seriously, but that the LJCC was not empowered to make decisions—the LJCC could only make recommendations to take forward. He expressed the view that the LJCC were simply hearing the reiteration of old issues.
Mr Glen Kelly responded that it was true that the issues were not new, but the problem was that the issues had not been addressed. He stated that the Staff Side had drafted a joint consultation document, but this had been rejected. He declared that the Contracts Working Party were aware of the issues. Mr Kelly asked the Employer’s Side to refrain from saying that they could not do anything, and stated that they should use their influence to bring about change.
Cllr Simon Fawthrop suggested that “one size does not fit all” and that LBB had to be flexible and pragmatic. He pointed out that A £500,000 contract with Bromley College had been called back, in which illustrated LBB’s flexibility and business sense. Mr Kelly responded that he found it strange that other contracts had been given to Bromley College when it was obvious that they lacked the expertise to fulfil the contractual obligations, and that one of the Bromley College contracts had incurred a £300k deficit.
Ms Lesley Moore ( LBB Assistant Director for Corporate Projects and Transformation) highlighted that the contract outsourced to Liberata was working well, had maintained service level agreements, and that only one staff member had been made redundant.
Councillor Colin Smith expressed the view that much of the information being disseminated concerning the Parks and Greenspace contract was not correct. He stated that everything that had taken place during the outsourcing of this contract was above board and transparent; it was the case that good staff find work and that the majority of staff that had originally lost their jobs were now back in work. He also expressed the view that previous information detailed to the LJCC by the Vice Chairman concerning fireworks was factually incorrect.
The Director of Human Resources suggested that a possible way forward was to request that the Chief Executive give a formal response, which would then finalise the issue. It would also mean that an “Oversight Committee” was not required.
RECOMMENDED that the Director of Human Resources seek a final and formal response on Procurement Strategy from the Chief Executive.