Decision details

RESOLVED that

       i.         the Executive approves this Strategic Procurement Plan to tender the

appointment of a Design & Construction Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Services Contract.

     ii.         Approval of this Strategic Procurement Plan authorises:

(i) a proposed contractual term for a duration of up to ten years with an initial period of five years and further 3 + 2 years based on key performance indicators of optional extensions with a contract value of £12m for 10-year contract.

(ii) Design & Construction Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Services Contract to be procured from a single provider.

    iii.         the Executive delegate authority to the Executive Director, Delivery and the Executive Member for Finance and Business Change to award the contract to the provider meeting the requirements of this contract.

       i.         It is a requirement of the contract standing orders, that the Executive approve any strategic procurement plan with a value more than £1m. This decision seeks approval for the procurement strategy.

     ii.         The current Managing Partner framework expires on the 30 June 2025, therefore there is a requirement to commission an external organisation to provide Design & Construction Multi-Disciplinary Consultancy Services Contract to implement and manage the delivery of construction projects.

       i.         Consideration has been given to seeking consultants on an individual project basis, however when Bracknell Forest Council have undertaken this in the past, it has proven to be a lengthy process. Involving numerous organisations into our practice allows room for error, as the continuity and the knowledge of the Councils stock is lost. However, having a Design & Construction Support team commissioned on a fixed term contract, ensures information on procedures and condition of our buildings are kept up to date.

     ii.          After consulting with other Berkshire Councils, we were informed that 3 of the Councils have inhouse consultancy staff and procure specialist support as and when required through a framework.

    iii.         One Council had a professional services framework for Consultants on architectural and design services which ran for 4 years and covered Housing, Education and Corporate. This was procured through the Portal ‘shortlisted’ 6 consultant firms to be on 4 year Framework for which mini competitions were ran when projects came to fruition. Some projects were procured as design and build, some were separated and procured separately. These are then overseen by a large internal Construction Project Management team. However, we also use a Framework such as CCS/Fusion 21 for specific projects. This option would not be suitable for BFC due to there not being a large in-house team, holding the knowledge required.

    iv.         One of the authorities has recently procured a contract, with 2 different organisations, with 1 providing pre-contract services and the other providing post-contract services. Due to a number of recent issues, this Authority is looking at alternative options. Team members moving from other authorities have tried this model, however it has caused conflict and contractual issues between consultants and would require significant resources to manage the contracts. There could also be issues regarding where negligence claims lay.

     v.         An option is to create an inhouse multi-disciplinary consultancy team to recruit a number of individuals, to design and manage projects lower than £0.5m, which would equate to approx. salary costs of £630k per annum, as shown in the table below. However, there would still need to be some input from an external organisation, to provide additional technical input, ie project management, public health engineers etc. as and when required for each of the projects.

    vi.         Furthermore, the ongoing difficulties in recruiting and retaining specialist engineers and surveyors, within the construction industry would undoubtedly result in a number of these roles remaining vacant and incur additional costs using agency staff. In practice, some specialisms listed would not warrant full-time roles and this would further exacerbate the challenges and reduce value for money. Therefore, internalisation of this service would not be a viable solution.

None