To consider a report on the Commercial Policy and make recommendations to the Cabinet.

(Note:  The Director of Finance, Cabinet Member for Housing and Finance and the Head of Commercial Services have been invited to the meeting for this item.)

The Board considered the submitted report on the updated Commercial Policy which had been rewritten to ensure that the Council’s procurement and contract management activities were carried out lawfully and efficiently for the benefit of the Council and local residents.  The Policy set out how the Council’s Contract procedures would be implemented and was underpinned by a wider framework of guidance and training for officers.  The report also set out a table (at Appendix 3) on where the recommendations from the Devon Audit Partnership, following a review of the Torbay Food and Music Festival, had been addressed within the Commercial Policy.

The Board asked a number of questions in relation to how much joint procurement was carried out with other local authorities who want to procure similar services; what was the reason that the equality impact assessment was not more positive around social value and local contractors;  did sub-contractors need to be local; why was there no specific mention of community wealth building or reference to the overarching policy on community wealth building; what opportunities were there for local businesses to be involved and how was the application process being simplified for small businesses, particularly around social value; how would the Council monitor how many small businesses had been successful in gaining contracts; had the system been trialled with small businesses to see if there were any issues;  how does a supplier contact the Council to ask to be included on the suppliers’ list; and what were the performance indicators for contracts.

In response to questions, Members were advised that the Council had a number of joint contracts with Devon County Council and Public Health also had a number of contracts around the wider Devon footprint, this included shared contracts for stationery.  Before the Council goes to the market they will speak to other local authorities to see if there were some economies of scale for joint procurement if it meets the required timescales.  A written response would be provided on the number of joint procurements.

The Board was advised that there was not detailed information on equality and diversity within the document as it was to ensure that the Council had the right systems in place in our procurement so that each element would be specific to each contract.  Additional emphasis had been placed on local suppliers and there was an expectation that the Council would use local suppliers ourselves but the Council cannot make suppliers use local suppliers but do actively encourage this.  This was in line with the Procurement Act 2023 which emphasises opportunities for local suppliers and how relationships were managed between suppliers and contractors.  This included enabling supply chains to come to the Council as contracting authority if there were any issues.

Members were informed that the Commercial Services Team would be monitoring local spend on a quarterly basis and could look into procurements where there was an expectation for local suppliers to bid and could explore the reasons why they had not bid for a contract.  Wider engagement with the market was proposed working with Devon and Cornwall Councils to present the new Procurement Act for new suppliers, which would focus on some of the responsibilities that sit with suppliers, due diligence and exclusions for higher value contract expectations.  There would also be a series of events to develop the procurement documents with the market including small businesses.  The Council had not yet tested the system with suppliers but would do so and had been testing internally with Council Procurement Champions who were going to shape the forms.  Suppliers can email commercial.services@torbay.gov.uk if they want to be added to the supplier list and they would be contacted with advice.  The website would be updated to include known procurement opportunities coming up over the next 18 months.

It was noted that there were not specific standard performance indicators for contracts as each one would need specific performance indicators to ensure the supplier was delivering what was expected from the contract.  There were suggested performance indicators to help officers develop the correct ones.  It was important that managers pick up early on any issues to enable them to be addressed with the supplier and to see if the Policy needed to be changed.

The Board welcomed the Commercial Policy which supported the use of local sub-contractors, where possible, and demonstrated that more robust due diligence would be carried out on future contracts, including financial checks on both the company and the company directors (and companies they were involved with) shown in the Compliance Tracker Financial Standing Monitoring Document at Appendix 2.  Members acknowledged that the recommendations raised by the Devon Audit Partnership had been addressed within the Commercial Policy and that lessons had been learned from the Torbay Food and Music Festival Review.