Issue - meetings

To consider the likely resourcing requirements and methods of procurement for external advice to the project.

Consideration was given to a report on the likely resourcing requirements and method of procurement for external advice to the Extra Care PFI project.

The Project would, if approved, be procured using the Competitive Dialogue process. This process was complex and hugely resource intensive and would require external advice to support in-house capacity to ensure timely project delivery.  The ability to demonstrate a robust project delivery resource was a pre-requisite of the grant of PFI credits and a key concern of HCA in terms of project delivery.  When Round 3 had been undertaken external advisors in legal, finance, project management, technical and insurance had been used.

The bespoke procurement of this support could take 3-4 months to comply with EU procurement but there were some alternatives which would allow the time and effort involved in bespoke procurement to be minimised.  These included the use of call-off contract arrangements; the restructuring of existing staff workloads and supplementing as necessary with external provision; and the engagement of experienced agency staff to work on the project in place of/to minimise external advise.

The key to the process was to ensure that adequate time and resources were made available both for the procurements and for the project itself.  Officers would continue to develop the ideas outlined and report back to the Management Board at a future meeting.

RESOLVED:

The report be noted.