Purpose

To request the take up of a 4
year Contract with optional 1 year extension for the provision of
passenger transport for various routes.

Content

For
the reasons as detailed in the report, the
Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
AGREED: 
 
To approve the strategy
identified within the detail of this report to procure a single
supplier to be appointed under a contract for a term of 4 years,
plus 1 extension period of 1 year (4+1) to deliver minibus services
for children/young people with Special Educational
Needs/Disabilities for an estimated contract value of
£450,000 per year with an estimated total value of
£2,250,000. This does not include inflation which will be
applied on the agreed contract. 
? 
 

Reasons for the decision

The current Lot 3 contract with
London Hire Ltd was extended and is due to end in August
2024.  By retendering for this contract, the council will be
able to continue to deliver a value for money and a high-quality
passenger transport minibus service to local schools.  A
service which will meet the clients’ needs no matter how
complex and a service which works within the council’s
budgetary restraints. 
 
This approach also permits the
Council some flexibility within its bus service provision i.e. if a
short-term requirement for transport is required, the contract can
be scaled up or down as required.? 
 

Alternative options considered

The service is statutory and service users already have three
different travel assistance options:? 

Traditional
transport,?? 

Independent Travel
Training?? 

Personal Transport
Budgets.? 

 
Minibus routes to be
insourced: On a direct comparison basis
insourcing does not offer better value for money by either leasing
or purchasing vehicle. The estimated annual cost to insource the 7
buses (leasing) is £470,000 compared to the current annual
cost £441,000 for the cost of the routes currently serviced
by London Hire Ltd.  It is likely that any retendered cost may
also see recent inflationary pressures reflected (see
2.1). 
 
If the Council sought to
purchase vehicles as part of an insourcing, delivery of vehicles
within the existing time frame could not be achieved (in order to provide any cost benefit to purchasing
as opposed to leasing).  There is also the issue of the
Council’s current appetite for Capital borrowing which would
need to show a cost benefit over 3 years (which it may not
achieve). 
 
Additionally, the current depot
space which the Council operates its insourced service from, is
currently at capacity and therefore any additional insourcing would
have to consider additional parking space (not on the current site
– with all the additional operational issues that this gives)
as well as the direct costs associated with renting additional
space. 
 
To tender routes through the
DPS framework –A number of the buses in this contract service
clients with physical disabilities, the availability of accessible
is scarce and therefore in high demand.  There is no guarantee
that we will be able to source these through the framework and due
to the uncertainty of ad hoc routes sourced in this nature,
compared to the reliability of a long term-contract costs will be
high.