Purpose

To authorise the Strategic Director for
Finance in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Finance and
Property to enter into of a contract framework to supply temporary
agency staff (temporary contractors, interims, agency workers) for
a period of up to two years.

Content

Decision:
To authorise the Strategic Director of Finance
and Resources, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Finance
and Property, to enter into a contract
with Comensura via the ESPO MSTAR4
framework to supply temporary agency staff (temporary contractors,
interims, agency workers for a period of up to two years with a
contract value of up to £8,000,000.
Reasons:

1.       
The council is currently reviewing its temporary
staff spend and is taking a number of
actions to reduce the cost of temporary staff, notably,
interims/contractors and how we source them.

2.       
These actions include consolidating spend at the
council, so that we have more of the council’s required
external workforce appointed via Comensura, which will give the council lower
margins, and a single point of all information on external staff
therefore helping to manage costs better.

3.       
Additionally, the costs for changing the existing
supplier via a tender, may deliver a small benefit of a reduction
in costs (less than £36,000) over the next 18 months. The
cost of this change is considered greater than the savings along
with the disruption. In addition, tendering now would rule out any
collaboration with WBC.

4.       
The contract rates will be the same rates as the
council currently pays now with Comensura.
Other options considered and rejected by the
Executive:

1.       
Re-tender – taking 6 months, plus considerable HR and Procurement resources.

2.       
Do nothing – the council would continue to be in a non-contracted
spend position and therefore have spend
non-compliant as not procured under contract in accordance with
Public Contract Regulations 2015 (PCR15).
Details of any conflict of interest declared by
the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation
granted:
None.