Review of Procurement - Executive Response
Post Scrutiny - Executive Response
In respect of: Review of Procurement
Date: September 2007
Cabinet Deputy: Cllr M Oldham
| Recommendations | Accepted / Rejected | Executive Response | Officer Responsible | Action By (Date) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. That the Council look for opportunities for Social Care and Health to contribute expertise and experience VCS to the work being carried out by the Procurement Champions’ thematic group investigating the tendering process. | Accepted | Adults Services are actively engaged with the SME sub-group (this includes the VCS sector) of the procurement champions. | Sandra Whitehead | Already occurred |
| It has been agreed by the Procurement Champions that a risk assessment can be used to identify the most appropriate procurement documentation, i.e. requesting reduced information for low risk contracts. This is being piloted by Adults Services. Feedback from this pilot will be fed back into the Procurement Champions Group. | Sandra Whitehead | Constructive feedback from this exercise can only occur when a ‘low risk’ contract has been identified and the results of the exercise are known. | ||
| Adults Services are working closely with T3SC and are facilitating some workshops to assist the VCS providers to learn about the commissioning process. | Sandra Whitehead | Dates planned for April & May ‘08 | ||
| 2. That the Council consider opportunities for Social Care and Health colleagues to input in to the work being carried out by the North West Centre of Excellence for standardising tendering thresholds regionally. | Rejected | Standardising the thresholds regionally will be difficult, as each Authority will have it’s own risk thresholds, based upon many factors, one of which will be the total expenditure of that Authority and the number of transactions a particular level level. For Large Authorities the number of transactions at a lower level may mean that they do not have the resources to tender for those services. The exercise undertaken by the NWCE to standardise tendering thresholds regionally did not produce a satisfactory conclusion. | Sandra Whitehead | |
| 3. That the Procurement Champions receive tailored training and support which reflect the requirements and ambitions of the new structure of the Procurement Champions Group. | Accepted | Training has previously been provided on an “as and when” required basis – e.g. Equalities Training relating to Procurement, the implications of the EU Consolidated Directive etc. | Martin Collett | Within the financial year 2008-2009 |
| Specific training will be identified as appropriate/useful such as TUPE etc. | Paul Turner (TUPE Training) | |||
| A ‘training toolkit’ has been developed to ensure that people receive procurement training that is relevant to their level of responsibility | Martin Collett | |||
| The on-line training on the basics of the Procurement Standing Orders has been developed for the E-Learning platform and will be tested by the Procurement Champions prior to implementation. | Martin Collett | |||
| A specification for prospective training providers for the broader procurement skills training for both officers and members has been produced and will be funded and actioned during the next financial year. | Martin Collett | |||
| A Skills Audit has been built into the current OD strategy | Martin Collett | |||
| New Procurement Champions to attend relevant training e.g. Equalities Training relating to Procurement and to attend a mini induction session relating to the background of the Procurement Champions Group and its role across the Council. | Malcolm Whitwood | |||
| 4. That the Procurement Group updates the Scrutiny Panel on the effectiveness of the new arrangements for the group when the Panel considers progress against the outcome of this report. | Accepted | The Procurement Champions Group to review the effectiveness of the new arrangements and to provide feedback. | Malcolm Whitwood | July 2008 |
| 5. That the Procurement Champions endeavour to be more proactive in communicating their role to colleagues and that they are supported in doing so. | Accepted | The role of Procurement Champion needs to be highlighted as a core function in improving procurement performance in the respective directorate/ service areas. The Procurement Champion’s role to be discussed within each senior managers meeting within each department. Each Procurement Champion to inform colleagues of their role and function. Each Procurement Champion to detail the Procurement reporting and communications mechanisms in place within their respective Directorates Need to ensure that each Directorate / service area has a Procurement Champion(s) that provide sufficient representation/coverage and b) that the Procurement Champion for each Directorate/service area can fulfil the role and function expected, with the necessary support. Publicity for “Procurement” activity across the authority is being planned with articles in the Wire, with links to the intranet web-pages |
All Procurement Champions | Within the financial year 2008-2009 and thereafter on-going |
| 6. That the Council reiterate to colleagues, sub-contractors and consultants, the aims of its procurement policies and procedures in relation to health and safety and equalities to ensure that they are included in any sub contractual arrangements. | Accepted | The ‘How to do business with the Council’ guide contains useful information for prospective tenderers, is reviewed and updated annually and includes the aims and objectives of the procurement policies. | Malcolm Whitwood | Completed March 2008 (next review 2009) |
| Accepted | The agreed equality clauses are included within the contract and tender documents. | Procurement Champions | On-going | |
| 7. That the Council ensure that the forthcoming ‘training toolkit’ provides all staff with relevant and up to date information according to their level of responsibility. | Accepted | See item 3. Above. | Martin Collett | Within the financial year 2008-2009 |
| 8. That the Council consider introducing the theme of procurement to the induction programme for new Council staff. | Accepted | All Council staff should be aware of the processes and procedures governing procurement at the induction stage. Procurement to be included in the “e-welcome” programme being commissioned, with links to the ‘ training toolkit’ for procurement. |
Martin Collett/Malcolm Whitwood | Within the financial year 2008-2009 |
| 9. That the Council involve staff in the continual improvement of the e-procurement system to ensure that it is ‘user-friendly’. | Accepted | A representative panel of ‘users’ to be set up to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the system, and to propose improvements to address those ‘weaknesses’. | E-procurement Steering Group | Awaiting feedback from the e-procurement Steering Group |
Page last updated: 19 June 2008