Re-letting of Norwich City Council’s contracted services

From waste collections and recycling to gritting roads, Norwich City Council spends millions of pounds delivering services for its residents.

But in 2010 the city council’s current arrangement with its main contractor CityCare, will come to an end. As part of the re-letting of these services, the council is required to put the contracts out to tender and has been seeking the views of its residents to assess how it can best shape and deliver those services in the future.

With 26 separate areas covered by the contract, the council must go out to tender and advertise its requirements in accordance with the Public Contract Regulations 2006. The regulations cover a range of criteria such as price, quality, delivery timescale, environmental aspects, after sales service and cost and effectiveness.

The council requires value for money services that meet the needs of its customers - and it will be on this basis that the services will be procured.

Whether or not a single or multiple providers can give the best value will be determined by those bids that demonstrate how they best meet the criteria.

As part of its work on the re-letting of CityCare services, the council’s executive committee has agreed that:

• contracts be broken down into lots
• a single Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) notice be published encompassing all the lots
• alternative methods of advertising the opportunities offered by these procurements to local small and medium sized enterprises be actively pursued.

The recommendations make it possible for either a single contractor to bid for all the work or for smaller contractors to bid for individual lots. Keeping both options open allows the council to see which contractor(s) represents best value.

Alan Waters, executive member for corporate resources and governance, says: “The current City Care contract comes to an end in 2010 and cannot be extended. The council has been in regular contact with both management and unions at CityCare about the timetable and implications for the re-let of the contract.

“The contracts have to be put out to tender in accordance with European Competition rules. It is up to contractors, including the current operators at CityCare, to decide whether they wish to bid for some or all of the contracts the council is re-letting.

“We want to make sure we award contracts on the basis they meet the needs of city residents and that the services provided are good value for money. We are also committed to ensuring that the workforce delivering services on behalf of the residents of the city council enjoy good terms and conditions of employment”.

Councillors are keen that any former city council employees who transferred to CityCare are offered admitted body status to the Local Government Pension scheme by any new contractors that are appointed. The executive committee will be taking a decision on this matter in the next few weeks.