Agenda, decisions and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relating to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

No members of the public were present.

To consider the award of the contract for temporary agency and other workers.

That approval be given to the award of contract to the top ranking provider referred to in table 1 in section 7 of the report, for a period of three years with an option to extend for up to twelve months commencing 1 April 2016.

It was reported that the existing contract with Comensura to supply Agency Workers on a Neutral Vendor basis was due to expire on 31 March 2016; the use of a managed service contract for Agency Workers offered the Council the ability to adopt flexible resourcing approaches to anticipate and respond to a changing environment.

The contract provides temporary staff for all non-education related requirements for temporary backfilling, temporary increases in resources, temporary fulfilment of new roles etc. Key job categories within the contract included Administrative and Clerical Staff, Social Care, IT, and Manual Labour.  The current agency staff contract was not designed to include senior interims and consultants, however, where senior or specialist skills are required, managing this through a single contract helps to streamline processes and governance.  The tender included for various strategic services to include for ‘direct hires’, executive interims, and permanent recruitment where required.

On 29 September 2015 Cabinet approved the recommendation to delegate to the Portfolio Holder for Performance, and the Chief Operating Officer, to award the contract following the tender exercise and to take all necessary actions to implement the new contract.  A collaborative tendering procurement process had been undertaken with Cheshire West and Chester Council, Vivo, ANSA and CoSocius.

RESOLVED

That approval be given to the award of contract to the top ranking provider referred to in table 1 in section 7 of the report, for a period of three years with an option to extend for up to twelve months, commencing 1 April 2016.