Minutes for Cabinet Procurement Committee meeting, Sep 8 2009, 5.00PM official page

Apologies for absence were received from Mayor Pipe and Chris Hudson.

There were no declarations of interest.

Contact Jackie Barrett 020 8356 3503

AGREED The minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 July 2009 were

a correct record of the proceedings subject to the following amendments:

Item 6 The fourth sentence in the first paragraph should read:  New ways of working had already been introduced and it was expected that, after staff consultation, the new structure would be in place by January 2010, with the exception of the brokerage team, which would considered in 2010/11.

Item 11 – Councillor Laing felt that the minute for item 11, although factually correct was missing some important information and asked that the following changes to the first paragraph 3^rd sentence be made as follows:  Councillors felt that the original scope for the project had not been detailed enough and had grave concerns around the safety of the project going forward with no contingency.  They questioned Officers about this.  Neil Isaac confirmed that officers were confident that the project would go ahead with no contingency and that savings would be made as detailed in the table in paragraph 4.9.

NOTED the two outstanding actions allocated to Chris Hudson as at items 4 and 6.

ACTION: CHRIS HUDSON

4.1  Committee Work Programme – Forward Procurement Plan Briefing Note with Appendix 1

Contact Juliet Okwuraiwe – 020 8356 3675

4.2  Hackney Procurement Board – Notes of Meeting

4.1  Committee Work Programme – Forward Procurement Plan briefing note with Appendix 1.

4.1.1  NOTED that the following items were on the Forward Procurement Plan as red items:

a.  Hackney Downs School – Sports Big Lottery Fund

Common land consent for this project had been granted and the funding had been extended to April 2010.  All tenders received had been over budget and officers were working with the consultants to address this.  It had been agreed that to avoid risk of delay the review point 4 report would be fast tracked and signed off by Chris Hudson.  It was expected that the report would go to Hackney Procurement Board either October or November 2009.  Councillors asked officer to ensure that the relevant Cabinet Member was kept informed of any respecification of this or any future projects. 

b.  Dalston Library Fit out

The outcomes of the review of this project had been shared with the Chief Executive the day prior to this meeting.  A lessons learnt report had been written and shared with appropriate officers.  Negotiations with Senior Managers from the Council and the Contractor on outstanding items were continuing.  Officers had discussed with the Chair the option of the report, which included the cost implications, being dealt with under urgency procedures, once the cost had been agreed.  The report had been jointly commissioned by the Corporate Director of Neighbourhoods & Regeneration and the Corporate Director of Community Services.

c.  Hackney Marshes Changing Facilities – Design and Construction

Stage 6 of this project had been completed on time but had been over budget.  A value engineering exercise had been undertaken to bring the project back under budget.  It was agreed that the Cabinet Procurement Committee at its October meeting would receive a process report that sought approval for the way in which the procurement would take place after which when the tenders were received they could be processed as per agreed by the Committee. 

d.  Telecare

This report was presented to the Hackney Procurement Board on 1 September 2009.

4.1.2  Councillors asked for updates on two other reports on the plan as follows:

a.  Cranston Estate – Combined Heat and Power Scheme

Match funding for this project had been received from the London Development Agency.  A briefing note detailing the funding for this project would be presented to Hackney Procurement Board in the near future.

b.  Independent Tenants and Leaseholders Advisor (ITLA)

This report had been written but it had been sent back to the author as more information was needed to be included.  It was agreed that this report would be presented to Cabinet Procurement Committee next month or that its rating would change to red on the plan and an officer would attend the meeting to explain why it had a red rating.

ACTION: ANGELA PHILLIPS

Clerks note: It was at this stage in the proceedings that Councillor Alcock left the meeting

4.2  Hackney Procurement Board – notes of the meeting held on 7 July 2009 were noted.

The Children and Young Peoples Directorate has been working alongside other London Boroughs for a number of years to develop a joint (Pan London) approach to the purchasing of children’s placements. This report provides Cabinet Procurement Committee with the update requested at the September 2008 meeting.

Paul Owen, Head of Children's Resources introduced the report as set out.  Councillors stated that they would in future like to see in this report more information included in the Key Performance Indicators around the quality of care provided by the placements and how this was ensured.  Officers confirmed that all Independent Fostering and Residential placements were inspected by Ofsted and those with an inadequate rating were removed from the Pan London Consortium list/system.  As an added precaution officers agreed to formally ask the Pan London Consortium to remove the placements with an inadequate Ofsted rating that were still on the list on the Appendix 2 of the report.

ACTION: PAUL OWEN

Mike Robson, Head of Strategic Procurement, asked Susan Wells, Interim Directorate Procurement Manager, to email him within 2 weeks of this  meeting to confirm that the underperforming organisations were removed from the Council’s supplier list as detailed on the Council’s financial information system (Cedar).

ACTION: SUSAN WELLS

In reply to a question from a Councillor Paul Owen confirmed that children were placed according to the skills and ability of the foster carer that best complied with the needs of the child.  The fostering service continued to maintain high numbers of in-house placements as placements in residential homes were being reduced.

RESOLVED

a.  To note the contents of the report.

b.  For the purposes of compliance with Standing Orders, agreed that Officers can continue to use Residential and Fostering providers approved through the Pan London scheme, so as to enable looked after children to be placed as required.

This briefing note is presented to Cabinet Procurement Committee to provide an update on the progress of the Clapton Library Refurbishment and Extension Project with regards to the quality, cost and time of the project.

Nicola Baker, Assistant Director of Culture, introduced the report as set out.. Councillor Laing stated that the Review Point 4 report, which had been approved by the Chief Executive in consultation with the Char of the Cabinet Procurement Committee under urgency procedures, now appeared to have been unnecessary since there was now an under spend in the projects budget and encouraged officers to learn from this experience.

RESOLVED to note the content of the report on the progress of the Clapton Library Refurbishment and Extension Project.

This report outlines the contract and performance management arrangements in place for Internal Audit Services. On the 1^st April, 2006 a new 5 year contract with an annual fixed cost of £828k was awarded to the preferred contractor.

Tracy Barnett, Assistant Director of Audit & Anti-Fraud, introduced the report as set out  In reply to a question she confirmed that the Audit Committee quarterly monitored the audits of internal services that had been carried out and the Chair had raised the issue with Corporate Directors of the importance of the audits not slipping.  Tracy Barnett confirmed that 5% reduction per annum had been introduced in 2007/08 and that no further introductions were planned.  She apologised for any confusion of wording in the report that may have indicated this.  The Chair encouraged officers to look into the possibility of a consortium with other Local Authorities for specialist audit services if the creation of an in-house audit team went ahead.

RESOLVED

a.  To note the existing and planned contract and performance management arrangements for Internal Audit Services.

b  To note the intention of the Corporate Director Finance & Resources to consider a negotiated variation to the contract to allow for the creation of an in-house team to perform part of the currently contracted activity. If implemented this arrangement would commence in April 2010.

This report details the progress and benefits realised through the implementation and second year of the four year contract for Hackney Recycling Services.

Mark Griffin, Head of Waste Strategy, introduced the report as set out.  He apologised for the misprint of date in paragraphs 4.2.and 4.3 of the report which should have read 2008 and not 2009.

In reply to a question on customer feedback officers confirmed that an intensive door step questionnaire of 16,000 homes had been carried out the information from which was currently being co-ordinated.  Complaint monitoring was also carried out results from which were incorporated into staff training.  Before the revised waste strategy was introduced a further consultation exercise would be carried out.

RESOLVED to note the report.

This report is presented to summarise both the benefits realised to date and to determine the way forward for the materials supply service.