Temporary staff and permanent recruitment for hard to fill posts

2. II.2.4 Description of the procurement

This VEAT notice is to notify the market advise of the following: a proposed contract modification. - Contract will be extended The Council has made the decision to extend the contract inline with the terms of the contract for the extensions (1+1) and the contract will be varied increasing the value of the contract by £31m. Original The increase to the value of the contract will rely upon Regulation 72(1)(b) for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor that have become necessary and were not included in the initial procurement, where a change of contractor- (i)cannot be made for economic or technical reasons such as requirements of interchangeability or interoperability with existing equipment, services or installations procured under the initial procurement, and (ii)would cause significant inconvenience or substantial duplication of costs for the contracting authority, provided that any increase in price does not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract. The grounds relied upon to use Regulation 72(1)b are set out below: (a) A change of contractor would require an unachievable timeline due to the technical and complex nature of the contract. The economic argument for the council to grant the increase in value to an existing contract is evidenced by the significant cost of re-procurement for a short term period. (b) The technical capability to reconfigure the council's current systems and processes is another reason an extension is required to provide additional time to procure a replacement contract. Ordering, time recording and approval systems would all need to be actioned by additional staff training, many of whom would be agency workers themselves. The problem would therefore become compounded. (c) A change of contractor is not possible as a short-term measure and would result, in a potential failure to retain key agency workers and threaten the council's ability to deliver some of its statutory services, which extends beyond the statutory test of simple "inconvenience". It is also not possible to run two separate contractors supplying these services in the short term again due to the size and complexity of the agency human resource requirement. (d) The proposed modification is necessary, proportionate, and compliant with Regulation 72(1)(b). It ensures continuity, avoids unnecessary cost and disruption, and maintains the integrity of the original procurement. (e) The increase in contract value £70m totalling £101m. arising from the proposed modification will not exceed 50% of the value of the original contract. (f) The modification will not alter the overall nature of the contract given that it is only the volume of services being called off that will be modified, not the nature of the contract itself. (g)GCC intend to start the re-procurement imminently for the next long term requirement. This contract was procured in 2021 for Temporary staff and permanent recruitment for hard to fill posts. This contract was procured via Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO), Lot 1 (Managing temporary recruitment for Local Authorities - Ref: 00942) for a period of 3+2 years (contract start date - 5th December 2022).