Weekly Procurement e-bulletin, Thursday 9 April 2020
Welcome to the NAG and SOPO newsletter for 9 April 2020. Feel free to circulate to your colleagues.
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LGA Update
The LGA Procurement team remains in daily contact with colleagues at MHCLG and Cabinet Office on supply chain issues. Our main focus includes helping to develop Government guidance, Procurement Policy Notes, looking for areas of good practice and making links between councils, the professional buying organisations (PBOs) the local government sector and central Government. If you have any good practice or queries you want to feed in directly to central government please contact us directly at coronavirus.enquiries@local.gov.uk.
We are seeing more councils getting together to agree a more strategic approach to PPN 02/20 in relation to Supplier Relief, looking across sectors and working through a common approach to suppliers where possible. We would encourage councils to do this wherever possible, and we are happy to help where we can.
PPN 02/20 also sets out that councils must use ‘Open Book’ contract management when applying supplier relief. We are hearing from some councils that the use of open book is obviously much more resource intensive and thatthey don’t have that much experience in these techniques. We are working with MHCLG and Cabinet Office colleagues to see if there can be a further set of guidance on this or even an e-learning package that we can issue to help your procurement teams with this - watch this space for more information.
Personal Protective Equipment
PPE supply continues to be the number one priority for councils and we have been working with the Professional Buying Organisations (PBOs) to establish what demand looks like across the sector.
The LGA has been pressing the Government to ensure adequate supplies of PPE reach those who need it as soon as possible. A one-off emergency drop of PPE is in the process of being delivered to Local Resilience Forums across the country to distribute to care staff and other frontline workers.
These drops will provide some much-needed immediate relief but a sustainable supply is desperately needed as they will not be enough to meet demand. Some councils are also growing hugely frustrated that deliveries to their area have not yet arrived and continue to be delayed.
It comes as councils are having to appeal to local businesses, manufacturers and other organisations to see if they can help supply unused or produce any new PPE such as gloves, aprons, goggles and masks. For example:
- Surrey County Council has warned of a limited supply of PPE coming into the county and has appealed for any businesses – including tattoo artists and beauty salons - who can provide them with vital equipment.
- Croydon Council has appealed for help from local firms for PPE to reach the hundreds of carers that are delivering vital health and social care support to residents.
- The West Midlands Combined authority has urged the region’s manufacturing companies to help make medical masks, gloves, googles and aprons. Businesses like Jaguar Land Rover have already started production of plastic visors, goggles and other PEE, but it is thought there is more untapped potential in the region.
While we welcome the emergency drops, there are still is an urgent need for PPE supplies across many settings to keep staff and residents safe. We raise every issue with the relevant government department, so it is essential you continue to email us at coronavirus.enquiries@local.gov.uk with any PPE issues, especially on quality of equipment received, affecting your local area,
Procurement Policy Notes
PPN 03/20: Use of Procurement Cards
We have been working closely with Cabinet Office to bring together the latest Procurement Policy Note (PPN 03/20) on the Use of Procurement Cards.
The PPN advises that action is taken to ensure procurement cards are used to best effect to speed up payment and ensure that people are able to access the goods and services they need quickly and pay suppliers as quickly as possible to maintain cash flow and protect jobs during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Using a procurement card for one off approved transactions can save time and money by removing the need for a Purchase Order to be produced, and for a new supplier to be set up on finance systems.
The NAO has estimated that using cards typically saves around 35 per cent in transaction costs or £5 per transaction compared with traditional methods. Councils will, of course, want to ensure that they have full and appropriate controls in place for the use of procurement cards.
Please note this PPN is advisory only for councils.
PPN 02/20 Additional Guidance for the Construction Industry
In addition to the above Cabinet Office also issued supporting guidance to PPN 02/20 earlier in the week which the LGA and NAG were consulted on.
The purpose of these guidance notes is to support contracting authorities in how they implement PPN 02/20 under existing construction contracts to provide contractual relief to at risk suppliers (and their supply chain) affected by COVID-19. This includes preventing a supplier from claiming separate relief from another source of government COVID-19 financial support, giving the supplier an undue advantage by claiming relief twice for the same hardship.
Each authority should consider the supplier’s circumstances and the contract in question to agree what relief will be the most effective. Discussions between both parties should be on a case-by-case basis. Any relief granted will need to be accompanied by provisions around open book transparency and the provision by the supplier of supporting information to make sure that commercial principles are complied with.
The principles in the guidance note can be applied across all forms of construction contract and includes a comprehensive FAQ and available options for relief.
YPO have produced guidance in relation to the temporary worker guidance is now available on their website.
YPO have been in close consultation with CCS and HMRC in relation to the FAQ’s and the message is that the Government scheme cannot be used for the payment of public sector temporary or permanent workers.
The guidance is only ‘strongly recommended’ for local authorities, YPO has made the decision to encourage local authorities to support it because they are going to need these very workers and supply chains in future delivery when we return to business as usual and another concern is that workers that are also not supported may refuse to sign off as ill because they need to income and they could be transmitting the virus into our communities.
The central Government FAQs can be found here.
Over the past month it has become clear that the need for Social Value is greater than ever, as public and private sectors continue to face unprecedented challenges in the wake on the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the ongoing crisis, the Social Value Portal team have developed a Covid-19 Plug-in for the National TOMs 2020. While the core values of the TOMs remain the same, this revised framework includes a series of new measures, as well as additional provisions for existing contracts, to provide clearer guidance to bidders and suppliers during this difficult time.
It is important to emphasise that these revisions are not intended to create an additional burden for businesses, but rather they are modifications with the goal of making the TOMs more flexible and responsive during the current crisis. Click here to download the Covid-19 Plug-in
Modern Slavery - Resources for Staff and Service Users in response to Covid-19
The Human Trafficking Foundation Covid-19 Resources Page is regularly updated with resources, advice and policy information affecting those working with victims of trafficking and exploitation. Please see their webpage for further information.
LGA Guidance - job retention scheme (furlough)
The Government has published further information on its Job Retention Scheme. There may be further information made available so please always check this link for the latest guidance.
HMRC has also produced a checker for employees which allows people to see if they may be eligible for this scheme.
The guidance refers to central government provisions to continue to pay contingent workers. Local Authorities may do likewise but no explicit funding has been identified for this.
Further information on furloughing and other related questions can be found on the LGA website in the employment law FAQ section.
Care Act Easement
Following the Care Act Easement announced by the Government this week, the ability to source experienced and specialist care workers rapidly via thewww.curamcare.com platform may be of significant value to local authorities and their care support teams.
As always, we would like to reiterate that the LGA does not endorse private companies providing services of this kind nor benefit in any way. We are sharing information that may be of interest to councils and will continue to do so from a range of sources as we get them through.
Events
Free contract management e-learning course
For those of you not involved in front line service delivery and currently being asked to work from home, you might now find some time for some continuing professional development. We negotiated a number of places on the Government Commercial Function’s Building contract and supplier management capability across government contract management e-learning modules. The foundation course aims to help contract managers achieve better outcomes and value for money through informed and timelier contract management decision-making. Over 1,000 council officers have enrolled on the course with 500 alone signing up in the latest cohort. Please get in touch if you or your colleagues are interested to join them. Email productivity@local.gov.uk
Note: some of you will have experienced difficulties with logging into this portal and we have been told that we’ll get an update on this soon. Good news is that the free of charge access to the e-learning portal for contract management training has been extended to end of June.
The European Academy is also offering online procurement training:
25 May 2020 - Effective E-Procurement in the Public Sector
Focusing on:
- Methods and models to support better contracting
- Evaluation of performance
- Digital tools for e-procurement
29 May 2020 - Risk Management in Public Procurement
Focusing on:
- Identifying and translating risks in contract
- Managing risks and expectations in the tender phase
- Identifying effective risk management tools
- Preventing risks in different phases of the process
09 June 2020 - Procure to Pay Process Optimisation - Reducing Costs
Focusing on:
- Fraud prevention
- Risk Mitigation
- Managing Complex Contracts
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