Agenda item

Clare Maynard (Head of Commercial and Procurement) Paige Edwards (Commercial Policy and Governance Lead) and Katie Smith (Commercial Policy and Governance Officer) were in attendance for this item.

1.      Mr Gough highlighted the achievements and  how KCC was delivering on areas such as  savings, social value transparency and compliance. Mr Gough proposed that the report be returned on a 6-month cycle so that monitoring of the remarkable work that had been undertaken continued.

2.      Mrs Maynard explained that the supplied overview had encompassed the totality of the council working together and how contracts had achieved the respective requirements. The four key priorities listed were: financial benefit and return on investments, wider public benefits, supply and management partnering, and transparency and compliance. It was further noted how these four elements had aligned with the recently introduced National Policy procurement Statement that had been implemented in February 2025 to co-align with the Procurement Act.

3.      Section 2.2 detailed financial benefits and savings, Mrs Maynard highlighted the error in dates and clarified that the reports actual start date was from September 2023 and not September 2024. £19 million worth of savings had been observed on contract activities, this indicated an observed average of 4.3% against contracts that were able to accommodate a saving.

4.      Mrs Maynard highlighted that the 4.3% saving had been driven by aspects such as negotiation, benchmarking against other authorities, Pré-extension reviews and specification reviews. Due to the positive savings that had been observed a request was received to work alongside Adult Social Care and aid the Brokerage and Placement Teams in improving those respective teams negotiating skills.

5.      Section 2.4 raised the discussion around the added values of social value, carbon reduction and recycling. Mrs Maynard added that contracts would be evaluated to ensure that they had captured those required aspects. Feeback received from CMT members regarding the quality of service had been implemented, providers that had not been able to meet the quality threshold was not to be considered for progression.

6.      Further achievements were summarised such as the updated KNET pages in aid of the new procurement act, The observed 62% spend associated with Kent suppliers and market analysis had enabled the right mix of suppliers to be engaged. Improvements on cost with the largest providers in Adult Social Care had been explored as had work with VCSE and SME providers on spending the council’s money progressed.

7.      It was discussed that the No PO, No Pay policy had been implemented. A significant benefit was observed with the reduction of retrospective PO’s. Mrs Maynard added that the report would be delivered in a 6-month cycle.

8.      Further to questions and comments from Members, the discussion covered the following:

•        Mrs Maynard confirmed that all providers had to adhere to KCC requirements to support effective oversight. Requirements had also been inserted into previous contracts and in turn those measures would be passed down from prime contractors to subcontractors.

•        Concerns were raised on the numeric figure of 30% retrospective POs being realised since the implementation of the No PO No Pay policy. Since, a formal policy that was implemented and endorsed by CMT. Mrs Maynard noted that a downward trajectory had already been observed in the realisation of POs.

•        On the issue of subcontracting, further clarification was sought on why KCC had not directly engaged with those smaller providers and explored potential savings. Members also asked for clarity on added social value,  partnership working benefits and in-house opportunities.

•        Mr Gough responded that KCC had remained open minded on the subject of inhouse solutions and noted the completed works that had taken place within the domiciliary care contract as an example.

•        Mrs Maynard addressed the Members’ concerns on sub-contracting and indicated that there had been no incidents of a prime contractor having passed on the entirety of the workload to a subcontractor. Effective lotting had enabled KCC to retain a high number of Kent suppliers within the portfolio.

•        Prime contractors that had managed the supply chain were subjected to a 10% overhead and reviewed at the cost monitoring evaluation stage. SIPs Branch had also continued to review Kent wide contracts.

•        Mrs Maynard responded to further Member questions and explained that there had been a decline in waivers with additional work undertaken to address retrospective waivers.

•        Some Members endorsed the drive to bring SMEs more in line with contracting arrangements and it was suggested that the provisions of Adult and Children’s Service’s was on a sound financial footing. Some Members commented that the current statistic of 80% commissioned services was too high.

RESOLVED to consider and note the report; and approve a six-monthly reporting frequency to the Committee on these matters.