Purpose

Proposed decision:
 
For the Cabinet Member for
Highways and Transport to:
 
APPROVE the procurement and
contract award of a zero value Professional Services framework
contract
 
DELEGATE authority to the
Director of Highways and Transportation, to take relevant actions
to facilitate the required procurement activity.
 
DELEGATE authority to the Director of Highways and
Transportation, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Highways and Transport, to take relevant actions, including but not
limited to, awarding, finalising the terms of and entering into the
relevant contracts or other legal agreements, as necessary, to
implement the decision.
Delegate authority to the
Director of Highways and Transportation, in consultation with the
Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, to award extensions of
contracts for commissioned services in accordance with the
extension clauses within the contract (4 years + 2 year
extension).
 
Further Information:
 
Highways &
Transportation (H&T) have a duty to ensure the effective
discharge of the Council’s statutory duties and powers as
Local Transport and Highway Authority, including the duty of care
to help ensure safe passage for all road users. Our focus is on
improving lives by ensuring every pound spent in Kent is delivering
better outcomes for Kent’s residents, communities and
businesses.
 
To deliver its duties
to the community, H&T requires a professional engineering
consultancy services contract. Kent needs a flexible, resilient mechanism to seamlessly access a source of
multidisciplinary technical expertise to guarantee the effective,
efficient and  timely delivery of
projects including  schemes, for the
fulfilment of H&T’s statutory duties as the Highway Authority.
 
Recommendation
This framework is a
multi-supplier (2 to 3 suppliers), multi-disciplinary contract for
Professional Services of zero guaranteed value, although it is
estimated that circa £6m of Professional Services will be
commissioned through these arrangements per annum over a maximum
period of 6-year period (4 years +2). 
 

Do nothing.
We have
ruled out the option of using other external frameworks from other
Local Authorities, CCS, and Central Purchasing organisations such
as ESPO as this poses a great risk to the Council as we will have
no commercial input to their terms and conditions or their
approach. Value for money is not guaranteed. The Council have no
formal means to address poor performance, there are too many
suppliers on these frameworks (the market indicates it is too much
competition).
There is no incentive
to build long-term professional relationships with KCC.
 
The
Professional Services Contract has been included in the following
current plans:
 
·  
Highways & Transportation,
Divisional Operating Plan 2024-25
·  
Growth Environment and Transport
Directorate Business Plan
 
 
This contract also
contributes to H&T’s priorities, objectives and outcomes
that are informed byKCC’s
Framing Kent's Future and Securing Kent’s
Future.
 
This framework will
support these by ensuring.
 

Customer satisfaction by providing ‘the right
services in the right way for the right people’ via
commissioning the right consultants to deliver quality services in
a timely and efficient manner.

 

Maximising lifespan
and minimising lifecycle costs of the highway and its assets.
Improving maintainability by embedding asset management principles
into everything we do by ensuring that designs and advice is
future proofed by looking at alternative materials and
technology.

 

Cost effective
statutory and discretionary services by commissioning well and
being commercially astute via effective collaboration with our
consultants to foster good relationships and empower them to
deliver good quality services and value for money.

 

Growth and economic
prosperity through efficient highway and transport infrastructure
by ensuring that designs and advice are innovative and forward
thinking.

 

Maximise inward
investment into Kent by encouraging the use of SME’s in
the supply chain and utilising the wider consultants' skills to
identify greater investment potential within Kent.

 

Retaining a safe,
healthy and motivated workforce with high levels of job
satisfaction (creating ‘more good days at work’) by
forward planning to help manage resources effectively, encouraging
creativity and innovation to motivate all stakeholders to create
safer designs for all.

 
 
Financial Implications:
 
There are no financial
risks to the Council from developing this zero-value framework, as
the Council is only required to pay for consultancy services as
they are commissioned. 
 
The anticipated
expenditure over the initial 4-year period may be in the region of
£27,000,000, this is based on the historic spend of
£6,750,00 per annum through the current framework. Should the
extension period of 2 years be taken (6-year total), we estimate
the expenditure to be in the region of
£40,500,000.
 
It is anticipated that
a 70% of requirements commissioned through this Zero value
framework will be funded externally, 50% of these include
specialist design and planning works relating to Major Capital
projects, covered by Central government funding award to deliver a
particular scheme (such as Levelling up Fund and Housing
infrastructure) in addition to these we receive external funding
from a variety of other sources (this will be detailed in the
cabinet committee report).
 
The remaining 30% of
the services commissioned through the framework relates to core
business, some of which is also externally funded, that directly
support the delivery of KCC statutory obligations such as The
Highways Act 1980, Well managed Highways, and the Road Tunnel
Safety Regulations 2007 via specialist support with inspections and
maintenance of KCC managed structures and Tunnels; as well as
specialist advice  commissioned with
respect to Flood management and flood investigations.
 
In establishing the
zero-value framework contract, Kent County Council does not commit
in any way to awarding any volume or value of works to the
appointed suppliers. This will allow flexibility where services
required are likely to be affected by KCC budgetary pressures and
uncertainty around internal and external funding.
 
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport,
I agree to:
 
(i)         APPROVE
the procurement and contract award of a zero value Professional
Services framework contract.
 
(ii)        DELEGATE
authority to the Director of Highways and Transportation, to take
relevant actions to facilitate the required procurement
activity.
 
(iii)       DELEGATE authority
to the Director of Highways and Transportation, in consultation
with the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, to take
relevant actions, including but not limited to, awarding,
finalising the terms of and entering into the relevant contracts or
other legal agreements, as necessary, to implement the
decision.
 
(iv)       Delegate authority
to the Director of Highways and Transportation, in consultation
with the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, to award
extensions of contracts for commissioned services in accordance
with the extension clauses within the contract (4 years +
2 year extension).