On 9 December 2025 Cabinet:-
(i) Acknowledged
the breaches in compliance with the Council’s Procurement and Contract
Governance Rules as cumulative spend with three suppliers exceeded delegated
procurement thresholds;
(ii) Acknowledged
the retrospective recognition of cumulative spend with certain suppliers which
exceeded delegated thresholds requiring Cabinet approval under the Waiver
Procedure for the following amounts:
·
Equacore Solutions Ltd (formerly Claudia Barnard Ltd): amount of circa £1.13m.
· The Talent Foundry Ltd: circa £830k
· Veran Performance: circa £596k
(iii) Approved
the Procurement Strategy set out in Appendix 1 of the report to procure and
award the following contracts for specialist programme support services:
· A contract for
‘Human Resources - PMO Projects’ until 31/10/26 with an estimated contract
value of £2.1m to The Procurement Hive to support the following sub-contracted
activity;
· A sub-contract
to the estimated value of £1.76m with Equacore Solutions Ltd; and
· A sub-contract
to the estimated value of £306k with The Talent Foundry;
(iv) Approved
the procurement of a Direct Award Call Off contract via a compliant Crown
Commercial Services framework to Veran Performance for an anticipated contract
value of £1.32m;
(v) Delegated
authority to the Director, Commercial and Procurement (or their delegate), in
consultation with the Executive Director of Finance (or their delegate) and the
City Solicitor (Monitoring Officer) (or their delegate) to approve award of
contracts as set out in Appendix 1 of the report; and
(vi) Authorised
the City Solicitor (Monitoring Officer) or their delegate to complete all
necessary legal documentation to give effect to the above decisions.
THE DEADLINE FOR CALL IN IS
1600 HOURS ON MONDAY 15 DECEMBER 2025.