To: Executive Director for People

25 November 2021

Contract Award for Procurement of Supermarket Vouchers

Assistant Director of Early Help and Communities

1          Purpose of Report

1.1       To award the contract for the purchase of supermarket vouchers as part of the distribution of the Household Support Fund and any potential future grants or internal budget. This contract will be awarded to the most suitable supplier from the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) framework RM6625. 

2          Recommendation

2.1       To award the contract for supermarket vouchers to Supplier A for a maximum period of three years.

3          Reasons for Recommendation

3.1       Supplier A scored the highest on the tender evaluation criteria against all 13 suppliers on the CCS framework. Therefore, it provides the best value for the council’s requirements.

4          Alternative Options Considered

4.1       As detailed in the Strategic Procurement Plan.

5          Supporting Information

5.1       The supplier evaluation was based on both cost and equality criteria, weighted according to the framework specification. Key quality criteria were set to determine which of the 13 suppliers would best fit the requirements and provide value for money. The prospectuses for each supplier were used for this evaluation. The details for the evaluation methodology are set out in Appendix A.

Conclusion

5.2       After evaluating all 13 suppliers, Supplier A scored the highest and is therefore recommended for the contract award.

Next steps

5.3       Pending the approval of the recommendation as set out in 2.1, the contract terms will be completed. These are the standard terms as set out in the CCS framework.

6          Consultation and Other Considerations

Legal Advice

6.1       The supplier has been selected from a Crown Commercial Services Framework in compliance with the terms of that Framework

Financial Advice

6.2       In the immediate term any expenditure on this contract will be grant funded. There are no direct budget implications from this report.

Other Consultation Responses (Head of Procurement)

6.3       Procurement considerations have been incorporated into the body of the confidential report, appendix A.

Equalities Impact Assessment

6.4       An Equality Impact Assessment screening was completed as part of the decision for distributing the Household Support Grant funding and to agree the procurement method for supermarket vouchers. This ensured that there was not a negative impact to any particular group. The present decision to award a supplier does not directly affect residents as the council still intends to purchase and distribute the vouchers according to the previously agreed process. Therefore, a further assessment is not required.

Strategic Risk Management Issues

6.5       There are no strategic risks anticipated.

Climate Change Implications

6.6       The recommendations in Section 2 above are expected to:

Have no impact on emissions of CO_2.

The reasons the council believes that this will have no impact on emissions is that any of the options for a supplier would result in the purchase of e-vouchers. These vouchers primarily do not require printing

Background Papers

None.

Contact for further information

Claudia Trott, Chief Executive’s Office - 01344 351557 

Claudia.trott@bracknell-forest.gov.uk 

Katie Flint, Chief Executive’s Office - 01344 352217

Katie.flint@bracknell-forest.gov.uk