Council and councillors

(KEY DECISION)

Report No.127/2019

Report No.127/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for People.

Mr D Wilby, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Education, introduced the report the purpose of which was to set out the current arrangements for skills provision and the contract which is due to end in August 2020, the process and proposed award criteria for the procurement of future skills provision, and recommendations for approval and delegation of final award.

During discussions the following points were noted:

·         The paper had been well written and explained very clearly what was required.

·         The process of sub-contracting was about due diligence and ensuring that the right partner was found going forward.

DECISION

Cabinet:

1.    AGREED to the procurement for a sub-contracted delivery partner through the award criteria in appendix B

2.    DELEGATED authority to authorise the Director for People, in consultation with the Cabinet Member with portfolio for Lifelong Learning, Early Years, Special educational needs & Disabilities, Inclusion, to awrd the contract resulting from this procurement in line with the award criteria.

Reasons for the decision

Rutland Adult Learning and Skills Service provides a valuable service to the residents of Rutland and supports the local authority in meeting statutory duties for post-16 education and training.

If Rutland is to continue to offer wide-ranging qualification based learning programmes for school leavers and the wider adult community, then this needs to be delivered in partnership with other providers.  This will ensure a continued high quality, flexible arrangement, with resilience offered through a wider workforce with access to specialist resources.

Undertaking a procurement exercise to seek a sub-contracting partner with effect from September 2020 is therefore required and it is essential that this provider can meet high expectations set out through the award criteria.