Agenda item - Cabinet Members' Items - Report of the Assets and Community Safety Portfolio Holder - A.2 - Essex Procurement Partnership Update & Procurement Strategy

To update Cabinet on the progress of the collaboration procurement service, known as Essex Procurement Partnership and to seek approval for the Collaboration Agreement to be entered into, replacing the arrangement directly with Essex County Council and endorsing the proposed Procurement Strategy for Essex Procurement Partnership, as the interim strategy for the Council.

(REPORT IS “TO FOLLOW”)

RESOLVED that Cabinet -

(a) agrees to enter into a Collaboration Agreement for the delivery of joint procurement services for a three-year period on substantially the same terms as set out in Appendix A of the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.2) with:

· Braintree District Council

· Castle Point Borough Council

· Epping Forest District Council

· Essex County Council

(b) authorises the Director for Governance, being responsible for the Council’s corporate procurement function, to sign the final Collaboration Agreement on behalf of the Council;

(c) agrees that Essex County Council should be the Accountable Body under the Collaboration Agreement acting as Lead Party, which includes responsibility for the day-to-day management of the service and its financial administration and managing seconded staff;

(d) notes that the Collaboration Agreement provides for annual contributions from the Council, which can be met from within existing budgets, although subject to review as part of the annual budget setting cycle to respond to changes such as inflationary increases;

(e) notes that further secondment or employment of staff to Essex County Council to support Essex Procurement Partnership, is fully and jointly funded by its Member Authorities;

(f) supports exploration of additional resource to support the legal support to the Essex Procurement Partnership, in particular for procurement and contract legal advice;

(g) endorses the continuous improvement approach as identified seeking views on the existing partnership and joint working through an internal questionnaire to feed into the arrangement for the next three years;

(h) approves the Procurement Strategy for recommendation onto Full Council for adoption as required by the Council’s Policy Framework; and.

(i) instructs Officers to regularly update the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Community Safety, as being responsible for procurement on the content and quality of the Council’s Contract Register and Procurement Project Pipeline ensuring it is kept up to date, enabling Council projects and business as usual can be delivered through the approved Essex Procurement Partnership Prioritisation Approach.

Cabinet considered a detailed report of the Assets and Community Safety Portfolio Holder (A.2) which update it on the progress of the collaboration procurement service, known as Essex Procurement Partnership and which sought its approval for the Collaboration Agreement to be entered into, replacing the arrangement directly with Essex County Council and endorsing the proposed Procurement Strategy for Essex Procurement Partnership, as the interim strategy for the Council.

Members were reminded that the collaborative partnership initially between Tendring District Council and Essex County Council for the delivery of procurement functions had begun on 1st October 2021 and continued until March 2025.

Cabinet recalled that, in March 2023, it had approved Tendring District Council forming part of a wider partnership of Councils to explore the Shared Procurement Service for parts of Essex, now known as the Essex Procurement Partnership (EPP).

Since 2023, the Council had worked in collaboration with Braintree District Council, Castle Point Borough Council, Epping Forest District Council and Essex County Council (the EPP Member Authorities) with the purpose to enable effective and efficient procurement, maximising the value for every pound spent by those local authorities across Essex for the benefit of local residents.

The collaboration would achieve this through a shared procurement team, with:

• Pooled resource enabling a resilient procurement service.

• The combination of expertise enabling well informed procurement activity to maximise value from the market and better value for Essex residents.

• Shared procurement activity enabling savings through economies of scale and efficiencies in the use of the procurement team.

• Standardisation of processes and documentation to support local businesses and SMEs in bidding for Essex opportunities.

Members were aware that this Council’s Portfolio Holder for Assets and Community Safety being the Executive Member responsible for procurement represented the Council at the Member Advisory Group (MAG) with elected Members from each local authority. The MAG had been established in September 2023 and provided executive member oversight of the EPP reviewing the performance of EPP in delivering against its objectives and acting as both critical friends and champions of the partnership.

It was reported that, currently, the EPP Member Authorities were taking the Collaboration Agreement, Procurement Strategy and Social Value Policy through their respective Cabinets. The concept of the collaborative procurement partnership and shared working approach had already been introduced and adopted through Cabinet. Whilst existing delegations were already in place to complete a partnership agreement, it was felt that in the light of the substantial progress made through the collaboration, it was appropriate to seek full Cabinet’s approval and present the proposed Procurement Strategy for consideration.

Cabinet was advised that the core objectives of EPP, endorsed by the MAG were set out in Schedule 1 of the Collaboration Agreement provided at Appendix A to the portfolio Holder’s report (A.2), and transferred to Service Plan objectives, as follows:

“• Contract Liquidity – To develop a clear contract register and forward plan to enable members to understand third party commitments and proactive procurement.

• RFQ Process – Provide the necessary template documentation and training to allow member authority staff to effectively undertake sourcing activity under the Party’s tender threshold.

• Sourcing Activity – Undertake all procurement for the Members Authorities above the Party’s tender threshold where placed on the pipeline 6 months ahead of requirement, with the exception of ECC where projects will be allocated by the Service Manager. This sourcing activity to be undertaken in line with the prioritisation approach set out in Schedule 3. Where projects are identified less than 6 months before needing to be procured the Lead Party will use best endeavours to undertake this procurement to support the requesting party.

• Category Management – Identify key categories of spend across member authorities and undertake review of this spend to identify savings opportunities, with the creation of a category strategy.

• Collaboration – Identify through category strategies and general procurement activity opportunities for collaborative procurement, create a plan for these projects and undertake sourcing activity to deliver benefits from this.

• Frameworks – Critically assess existing frameworks to understand income vs. effort and expertise to create. Focus on increasing income from existing frameworks and identifying new frameworks to increase income.

• Social Value – Introduce a common approach to social value/ climate agenda to sourcing activity for members.

• Knowledge – Provide business Parties and a supporting procurement team with the right knowledge and capabilities to deliver an effective and professional sourcing service to each member.

• Development – Undertake an assessment of procurement maturity and support in developing this level of maturity in line with the National Procurement Strategy.

• Network – enable access to wider expertise within the ECC team and wider authority network where resource is available.”

The Collaboration Agreement set out how EPP would deliver the objectives in detail and the governance structure which oversaw its operation.

It was noted that the Collaboration Agreement was proposed to be in place for a three-year trial period, during which time performance would be reviewed for all Member Authorities to consider whether it wished to continue to participate in EPP and whether a longer-term position should be adopted. This timeline also accorded with the potential Local Government Reorganisation programme and could be reflected upon as further information became known.

It was important that the Council responded proactively to the Prioritisation Approach and ensured that it maintained robust data to ensure the projects and services could be delivered by factoring the procurement activity and all four stages of the commercial pathway into their timelines. The Portfolio Holder for Assets and Community Safety would have oversight of the Council’s Procurement Project Pipeline to feed into the EPP workplan.

Members were made aware that the Collaboration Agreement, as set out in Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.2), was still in draft form to be finalised for completion by the Member Authorities. The financial contributions could be met from existing budgets and any inflations through the normal budget setting cycles. As the level of procurement activity increased and the Procurement Act 2023 (“the Act”) came into force, with a revised National Procurement Policy Statement there was a need to review the available legal resources and its capacity to support the partnership. There was a proposal to be explored with shared resources within the partnership and potentially funding additional capacity to provide procurement and contract legal advice.

The Procurement Strategy

Cabinet was informed that the Procurement Strategy, provided as Appendix B to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.2), set out the rationale for the Collaboration, Vision, Goals, Scope and Remit, and Strategic Priorities and Actions of EPP for the next three years and would be expected to apply to procurement within the Council. This sought to deliver the agreed objectives as set out and in particular outlined how EPP would do so over the next three years in line with the Act.

Members were cognisant that current guidance documents produced by the Government highlighted the four stages of the commercial pathway being Plan, Define, Procure and Manage and the Strategy provided more detail on those stages, but all services across the Council would note that the procurement phase, was the third one out of four. More attention to preparation resources and groundwork being provided by the commissioning service area should be placed on the first two parts to ensure the Council could make the most of the flexibilities the new Act provided by being clear of the service’s intentions through the required notices.

It was set out that EPP would review and update its Procurement Strategy annually to ensure that it remained relevant and responsive to the changing needs and circumstances of the Authorities including new legislation and national policy. EPP would monitor and report on the progress and performance of this Procurement Strategy to Members and stakeholders.

It was recognised that the new Act introduced a shift in procurement objectives, moving beyond the traditional focus on equal treatment and non-discrimination. Now, contracting authorities were mandated to deliver value for money, maximise public benefit and act with integrity throughout the procurement process.

Cabinet was made aware that the Government’s National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) had been published on 13th February 2025 in readiness for the Act going live on 24th February 2025 and came into effect on the same date. The NPPS applied to all contracting authorities as defined in the Act. The Procurement Strategy supported the priorities of the NPPS.

Having recognised that a number of benefits would be achieved to EPP members, so benefiting Essex residents which included:-

• Increased resilience – through more resource, EPP was able to better flex to the peaks and troughs of each Authority and enabled effective delivery of projects in Districts improving the services residents received.

• Procurement Expertise – By operating across multiple authorities, staff were able to specialise in categories of spend, with more procurement activity in those categories. The result of this should be more informed procurements which in turn would deliver better value for money for the District’s residents.

• Category Spend management and strategic oversight for consolidation opportunities – Ensuring the Council could have regard to the importance of achieving value for money, as this was always the overarching priority in public procurement. Government guidance (e.g. Managing Public Money and Best Value statutory guidance) set out how to use public money responsibly.

• Savings Opportunities & Increased Market Influence – Through a common forward plan of procurements required, and working as a team, the Member Authorities would be able to better identify collaborative procurement opportunities. This gave the opportunity to combine spend, creating economies of scale and so delivering contractual savings. Additional benefits would be achieved through efficiency in the resource model, with collaborative procurements enabling fewer tender processes to be undertaken. Over time, as the team developed, savings in the staff model would be enabled so reducing the overall cost of the team to member authorities.

• Reduced Duplication – Working together to have one common approach to procuring and social value would both create efficiencies for the procurement team and reduce the administrative burden to those bidding for procurements. Small to Medium Enterprises and Voluntary Sector Organisations who tended to have limited resources to bid, should be particularly advantaged by this approach.

• Staff Retention and Improved Practice – By collaborating together, efficiencies would be created to enable the delivery of professional procurement practice. The common approach to assessing Social Value was an example of this. Other examples included work to understand the market from which the Authorities were sourcing, introducing an industry recognised category management approach to drive better value for money in Districts and Boroughs.

• Governance – ensuring the Member Authorities had appropriate and proportionate controls, systems and standards to manage procurement risk and to comply with legal requirements.

It was also felt that the adoption of the EPP Procurement Strategy for the Council to deliver in line with and publication on the Council’s web page set a clear direction of the next three years, in line with the requirements of the Act and the National Procurement Policy Statement.