Venue: Remotely via Teams
Contact: Michelle Roberts, Scrutiny Officer
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Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interest Minutes: None |
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Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips Minutes: None |
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Public Questions Questions must be submitted in writing, no
later than noon on the working day prior to the meeting.
Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt with in a 10-minute period. Minutes: There were no public questions received. |
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Responses to follow up questions PDF 247 KB Minutes: Panel wished to
satisfy themselves that the terms and conditions attached to planning
permissions, particularly relating to the ecological impacts of developments,
are being met. The Panel were satisfied that we have adequate arrangements in place
to ensure that any conditions that we might attach are actually being made. |
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Procurement in the Education Directorate PDF 308 KB Cabinet Members and Director have been invited to attend to present the report and answer questions Minutes: Cllr Robert Smith
and Brian Roles attended the Panel to present the report and answer
questions. The full report was received
and will form part of the evidence pack for the inquiry. Over and above this the following was noted
from the discussion: ·
Council works in partnership with schools and
also Welsh Government to procure a significant amount of what is spent within
the Education Directorate, as well as what we ourselves are responsible for. ·
The most effective controls exist where there
is an ownership of issues and ownership of the need for robust processes. It is
not simply a matter of a policing role at the centre, there must be ownership
in the understanding of the need for robust practices. For that reason the Directorate’s robust
overarching governance and assurance framework provides the essential
foundation for robust procurement practice. These broad areas are subject to
audit and scrutiny. ·
It is really important to recognise the extent
to which direct procurement is limited within the Education Directorate. Whilst
there is a large overall budget as an education directorate, the lions share is
delegated directly to schools. ·
The most significant of the areas of procurement
is home to school transport. These
contracts are managed by the Place Directorate on behalf of Education. The
Transportation team regularly tender those contracts to seek to ensure the most
cost effective arrangements. ·
Another significant budget area is the
independent and out of county placement budgets and associated costs. We have a long term strategy to enhance the
availability of that specialist provision within county and in so doing
mitigate the scale of the costs from external placements. ·
A third area are catering and cleaning supplies
which we procure with the support of corporate teams. ·
The next area is IT hardware and license costs
to support schools and these costs and managed in partnership corporate teams
who again ensure value for money. ·
In terms of capital, we have a very significant
capital investment programme through our 21st century schools programme. Our
tendering and contracts are delivered in accordance with corporate requirements
through corporate building services. ·
The Panel asked a question relating to home to
school transport: Do we include in the discussions with transport companies any
requirements about effective pollution management? Also how do we monitor and take account of their
actual behaviours? For example ensuring
that those who transport, when waiting ensure schools their engines are turned
off to minimize pollution. The Place Directorate with be contacted
with the question. ·
The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act
principles are embedded in the operation of the Directorate. In fact, the very
nature of education provision in the planning for future education provision
necessities long term planning and this is clear in the 21st century schools
programme, wider capital investment for schools and the planning of schools
places. School building projects have particular focus on building efficiency.
Potential linkages with the curriculum are made so we can engage pupils and
wider stakeholder group in the process of delivering a new build school. ·
There is an aspiration for the next phase of
projects to be net zero carbon in terms of the delivery and we are working on
that with the most recent business case that has been submitted to the Welsh
Government. ·
The Panel asked if possible was possible for
schools to be provided with costing examples or provided with catalogues so
they have an idea of the cost of what they need to purchase. The Panel heard this has been discussed and
schools have been asked for nominations for reps to be on a procurement working
group to consider such issues and how best to provide advice and support to
schools. Any gaps can be identified and common solutions can be created. ·
The Directorate have Integrated Impact
Assessment screening, which are completed for all capital projects, as well as
the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act assessment. ·
The service level agreements with schools are
very important and are specifically reviewed each year as part of a very well
established process through the school Budget Forum and its working
groups. This is to ensure that service
level agreements remain fit for purpose and provide the services that schools
need. It ensure that they are transparent and are clearly costed, reflecting
the true cost of delivering those services. ·
In terms of capital projects, there is routine
monitoring with any financial claims scrutinised and disputed if appropriate,
any risks and issues are escalated.
There is a well-established governance process for the whole QEd
programme. ·
In terms of the 21st century schools programme
we are required to comply with a whole number of conditions that come with the
funding that the Welsh Government provides and procurement needs to be
undertaken via an approved Welsh Government framework. This is done working in conjunction with
corporate building services. ·
There needs to be national change and or
revision to national policy if we are to further develop our procurement
practices and regional frameworks to be flexible enough to truly procure
locally. It is a very difficult to
balance this with the need for sufficient capacity to deliver on the size of
schemes that we are talking about. ·
Welsh Government have been discussing how we
can in future can look at the distance that materials have travelled and the
carbon impact as part of the evaluation of
tenders ·
If we are to move forward to a more localised
procurement we must look at what needs to be changed to enable that. For
example capacity building at provider level needs to happen. · The issue of Governing bodies having a Procurement sub-committee or similar was raised by the Panel. The Panel were given reassurance that schools within their governing bodies do have subgroups that do focus on finance and premises matters. |
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Procurement in the Corporate Centre PDF 425 KB Cabinet Members and
Director have been invited to attend to present the report and answer questions Minutes: Cllr David Hopkins,
Adam Hill and Chris Williams attended the Panel to present the report and
answer any questions. The following was
noted over and above the written report provided: ·
In relation to procuring locally, this has been
one of the areas we are pushing but it is not just about buying local but it is
about making sure that we work with local companies. We are part of Swansea major employer’s forum
and that enables us to encourage and allow businesses to understand what it is
like and how they can best work with us also to show how they would apply
including the processes that we go through.
It is a priority for Swansea that we seek to maximise the
spend in our local area and we consider that as part of our contract
design. ·
Some of the examples of environmentally focused
procurement include: Green Fleet initiative and The More Homes Initiative of
energy efficiency in housing, these show how our how procurement activity
translates into reality and tangible outcomes.
The Council’s pension fund was also mentioned and the recognition it has
received for its best practice in the area by moving away from holdings
relating to fossil fuels. ·
Through our contract system we look to enforce
core obligations of the public sector and the legal framework we operate in.
One example is modern slavery, anybody with a conviction for anything related
to that would not be a company we would we would deal with and we check all new
suppliers. ·
With regard to equalities duty all staff are
trained in understanding the implication of the Act and adherence to the Act is
integrated into the procurement process. ·
The impacts of leaving the European Unions and
impact of Covid was outlined including that it has been a perfect storm with
COVID in terms of many businesses having stopped working for a fair length of
time. Impacts have been felt more recently include: Cost and availability of
building materials; some supplies are delayed in being received, things like
plasterboard and the labour market are far more volatile. The same level of
staff are not available. ·
Social value is a key part of what we do. The
Welsh Government has said it is going to follow the new UK rules on how to
enhance social value in contracts, so in the next few months we should see the
first draft of those new rules and these will be circulated to the Panel when
they become available. ·
It was highlighted that are only 8.5 members
within the commercial procurement team that supports place, social services,
education and the corporate centre resources versus Welsh Government guidance
of 26 members of staff. £260 million pounds is spent per year on suppliers and
services, which will at some point go through the Commercial Services team, so
further resourcing for this area is being considered at this time. |
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Inquiry Project Plan PDF 123 KB Minutes: The Panel reviewed the Project Plan. |