Agenda item

Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/19/24) on the Transport and Engineering Professional Services Contract, asking for approval of the model for civil engineering design services and to proceed to tender, attached.

(Councillors Dewhirst and Whitton attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/19/24) on the Transport and Engineering Professional Services Contract, asking for approval of the model for civil engineering design services and to proceed to tender. The Report was circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

The Council had an internal engineering services delivery group (Engineering Design Group (EDG)) responsible for the design, project management, procurement, supervision and contract management associated with the delivery of infrastructure schemes.  Since 2001, the EDG had a Transport & Engineering Consultancy Services (TECS) contract in place which allowed it to manage the fluctuating workload and provide specialist services which were not available in-house. The current contract with Jacobs Engineering commenced in 2010, initially for a 5 year period, with options to extend. The contract had been extended to the maximum and was currently due to expire on 31 March 2020.

This Report was a summary of the review process undertaken to establish the most appropriate future delivery model beyond 2020 and the detailed Report of the review was attached at Appendix 1.

The delivery model objectives needed to reflect the key operating principles of the EDG which were agility and flexibility to meet changing needs, delivering value for money in programme and project management, design and contract supervision, understanding, and helping deliver the Council’s strategies and high customer satisfaction levels and managing the Council’s exposure to the risks associated with changing staff resource requirements and funding changes.

Additional requirements were identified as providing a stable platform to enable the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff and to create an environment which effectively identified and managed project risks.

There were various delivery model options and the following were considered, full in-house service delivery, in-house team with single top-up consultant, in-house team with several top-up consultants, Local Authority Trading Company (LATC), Public-Public Joint Venture (JV), Public-Private Joint Venture (JV), fully externalised service with single external consultant or fully externalised service with several external consultants.  More details of the reasoning behind the sift was found at section 6 of Appendix 1.

Following the initial sift analysis the models relating In-house team with top-up consultant(s) were taken forward for additional appraisal.

The Council’s Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee had considered the Delivery Model review at their 29 January 2019 meeting and had endorsed the proposal to adopt an internal team with top up consultant as the preferred model for delivery of the transportation and civil engineering design services from 2020 onwards.

This option was felt to have the best alignment with the delivery model objectives and the majority of other local authorities favoured this model. The supplier market felt it would best serve the Council’s needs and had played a key role in successfully delivering a significant infrastructure programme since its inception in 2001.

The Cabinet noted that as part of the Conditions of the Contract, specific clauses would be included based on those contained in the Achieving Equality in Commissioning and Procurement document http://www.devon.gov.uk/equalitycommissioning2015.pdf. It was also intended to test the prospective consultants’ policies on social and equality factors through the procurement.

The matter having been debated and the options and/or alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability (including carbon impact), risk management, equality and legal considerations and Public Health impact) set out in the Chief Officers Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

it was MOVED by Councillor Hughes, SECONDED by Councillor Davis, and

RESOLVED

(a) that the selection of in-house with single top-up consultant, for the future delivery of Transport & Engineering Professional Services, be approved;

(b) that the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Infrastructure Development and Waste and the Cabinet Member for Highways Management, be given delegated authority to invite prospective tenderers who are best qualified to bid following a formal selection process; and

(c) that it be noted that the prospective consultants’ policies on environmental, social and equality factors connected to this service will be evaluated in the Selection Questionnaire and Invitation to Tender stages of the procurement process.