DN584621 Socially Excluded Accommodation (Singles)

Tender description

The Adult Services & Health Procurement Plan 2021 -2022 was approved by Cabinet on 09/04/21 This revised plan took account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which had delayed a range of commissioning and procurement activity within the Adult Services and Health Directorate. That approval provided extensions, variations and exemptions in order to be compliant with the Council’s standing orders and legislative requirements. The pandemic caused major disruptions to commissioning, primarily in regard to: ability of providers to respond to invitations to tender because of furloughed capacity or illness; redeployed capacity in the local authority or provider organisations into essential frontline functions to save lives during the pandemic and lack of access to specialist technical resource. The Directorate has made significant progress with these commissioning activities, including Socially excluded accommodation for statutory homeless households which has been retendered , albeit that the timescales for the conclusion of the process have continued to be challenging to meet given the pressure on resources within the council. The service’s which are subject of this exemption request, deliver vital support to people whom are homeless and vulnerable households to be supported into sustainable long term housing .These services support the council in fulfilling its statutory duty to vulnerable households in priority need under the Homeless Reduction Act (2017) Once the award to the successful bidder is approved at Cabinet we anticipate that a new contract can be in place, governance allowing, within 6/8 weeks from that decision but in order to allow for any delays for implementation, including TUPE and the signing of a Management Agreement with the landlord of the building, would seek an exemption to continue the existing contract up to 28th February 2022, with a new contract being in place and fully operational by 1st March 2022. Depending on the nature of implementation, this timescale may be shorter as agreed with CPU.