Agenda item

To consider and agree a draft Statement of the Board in relation to the procurement of housing contracts.

Referring to Minute 6 of the meeting held on 3^rd June 2010, the Head of Scrutiny and Member Development submitted a report on the draft Statement of the Board in relation to the procurement of housing contracts.

Appended to the report was a copy of a document entitled ‘Draft Scrutiny Statement Procurement of Housing Contracts April 2010’ for the information/comment of the meeting.

The following representatives were in attendance and responded to Members’ queries and comments:-

Wayne Baxter, Chief Procurement Officer, Chief Executive’s Department

Debbie Forward, Supporting People Manager, Environment and Neighbourhoods.

Wayne Baxter, in his presentation, made specific reference to Recommendation 5 within the draft statement and provided further background about officer declarations in particular and the ongoing debate both locally and nationally about whether the register of employee interests should also be made available to the public. 

Following a brief discussion, the Board agreed that it would be more appropriate for recommendation 5 to be directed at the Council’s Monitoring Officer and Chief Officer for Human Resources for implementation.  Members also amended the recommendation to request that an update report be brought back to Scrutiny within 3 months.  The Board’s Principal Scrutiny Adviser was therefore requested to redraft this recommendation as follows:-

Recommendation 5 – (i) That the Chief Human Resources Officer and the Council’s Monitoring Officer be requested to explore ways in which the requirement for all Members and officers to formally register and declare any interests/relationships of a business or private nature with external contractors or potential contractors can be made more transparent as part of any contract review process.  (ii) That an update report be brought back to Scrutiny within three months.

The Chair then welcomed Debbie Forward, Supporting People Manger, to the meeting who was conveying comments received from Councillor J L Carter, Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and Housing, and Neil Evans, Director of Environment and Neighbourhoods, on the recommendations within the draft Statement.

In consideration of the comments made, the Board agreed to make the following amendments to the draft recommendations:-

Recommendation 1 – the Board agreed to include the words ‘Where this was not possible due to unforeseen emergency situations, then to ensure that an inspection was undertaken within 48 hours or the next working day’ to the end of this recommendation.

During the meeting, specific reference was also made to the following issues:-

• clarification of the number of inspections that have been conducted with regard to the provision of temporary accommodation

(The Supporting People Manger responded and informed the meeting that 280 properties had been inspected last year.  It was also reported that currently there are no families placed in the private sector as temporary accommodation)

• clarification of the inspection arrangements in place in terms of the provision of temporary accommodation for Asylum Seekers

(The Supporting People Manager responded and explained that the UK Border Agency was primarily responsible for commissioning and managing the provision of private sector accommodation for Asylum Seekers and therefore would have in place their own inspection arrangements )

• in acknowledging the robust inspection regime now adopted by the Council, it was proposed that the Chair writes on behalf of the Board to the UK Border Agency to advise that such good practice is also adopted by them in relation to the provision of temporary accommodation for Asylum Seekers in Leeds
• reference was again made to the need to reduce the numbers of requests made to waiver/invoke contract procedure rules. 
• clarification was sought on the number of requests still being made by Environment and Neighbourhoods to waiver/invoke contract procedure rules and the reasons for such requests.  It was recommended that the successor Board receives details of such requests made over a recent quarterly period and uses this to review and evaluate the situation

(The Supporting People Manager explained that the majority of waivers will relate to Supporting People contracts as not all will be subject to competitive tender due to the high volume of contracts in place and therefore contracts are prioritised for competitive tender)

RESOLVED-

a)  That the contents of the report and appendices be noted.

b)  That, subject to incorporating the above comments, approval be given to the Board’s Statement on the Procurement of Housing Contracts in accordance with the report now submitted.

c)  That the Chair writes on behalf of the Board to the UK Border Agency advising that the robust inspection regime adopted by the Council in relation to temporary accommodation was also adopted as good practice in relation to the provision of temporary accommodation for Asylum Seekers in Leeds.

d)  That the successor Scrutiny Board receives details of requests made by the directorate to waiver/invoke contract procedure rules over a recent quarterly period and uses this to review and evaluate the situation.

(Councillor D Hollingsworth joined the meeting at 10.15am during discussions of the above item)