SUBMITTED TO: ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERFORMANCE PANEL - 24 OCTOBER 2014 COLLABORATION UPDATE JOINT PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLIES DEPARTMENT

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1 ORIGINATOR: CHIEF CONSTABLE PAPER NO: AP14/74 SUBMITTED TO: ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERFORMANCE PANEL - 24 OCTOBER 2014 SUBJECT: COLLABORATION UPDATE JOINT PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLIES DEPARTMENT SUMMARY: This report provides an update on the activities of the Joint Procurement and Supplies Department. RECOMMENDATION: 1. The Accountability and Performance Panel is asked to note the content of this report. 1

2 1. KEY ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION: 1.1. Meetings of the Accountability and Performance Panel receive update reports on the collaboration programme. It has been agreed that each report will focus on a particular department/area of collaboration This report will focus on the collaboration within Procurement and Supplies 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1. The Procurement and Supplies Department is a joint unit operating in commercial, supplies, print and publications and stores environments. It was structured in 2012 to operate flexibly maximising use of available technology where possible, to manage a single store, and took the future Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) implementation into consideration There has also been a lot of effort put into aligning standing orders, policies and operating procedures, contract registers, filing systems, and to operate from a single instance of the tendering systems. The Suffolk and partly joint print unit has recently come under command with a programme of improvements underway. 3. NATIONAL POLICE PROCUREMENT 3.1. The Home Office (HO), in conjunction with the Strategic Police Procurement Board (SPPB), has commissioned a Collaborative Procurement Evidence Based Project (CLEP) as part of a wider Collaborative Police and Law Enforcement Procurement Programme. The project s aims were to: review the current police procurement landscape and produce an evidence base detailing the current level of procurement collaboration; identify the contribution of IT systems as enabling tools and how they can be adopted more widely to support collaborative procurement; produce an evidence base that articulates the benefits to forces and savings that can be delivered through greater and improved collaborative procurement 3.2. Norfolk and Suffolk were selected as one of the forces to provide detail of spend activity and articulate views on how police procurement could be improved in support of the project outcomes. A department representative has been very engaged in the process representing police procurement specialists on behalf of the Procurement Executive (NPPE) The NPPE continues to review categories of spend and provide guidance on the most suitable procurement methods. The procurement department will be supporting this activity by reviewing Facilities Management on completion of the CLEP project. A department member is an active participant of the NPPE Confirmation has been given that the HO has dictated that the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) will be the lead for common goods/services frameworks rather than have a lead force model as is the present practice. This will not directly impact the constabularies in so far as procurement activity, as we did not previously lead on major national frameworks. CCS has a poor reputation for delivery of timely frameworks and ongoing contract management; this has been referred to the HO. This method of procurement still requires consideration of appropriate partners to align with to carry out further competitions and maximise aggregation of requirement to achieve best value. 2

3 3.5. The mandated vehicle replacement framework agreement will be led by CCS with lots for police specific vehicles. This has been delayed and final award dates are still to be finalised. A member of the department is on the stakeholder group for this project The present mandated ICT framework will be replaced with a number of lots which should allow for competition but will take time to put in place. The present arrangement with the CCS supplier has been extended to allow this to be completed. Norfolk and Suffolk ICT and Procurement units, on behalf of the Police Service, have been fully engaged with CCS in a pilot assist with identifying the most effective way to make savings in this area of business A replacement e-tendering system, which has been tendered for national adoption, will be introduced which will allow for improved use of technology. A member of the department has represented on the team carrying out the activity. Regional training has been carried out led by the department National Uniform Managed Service (NUMS) had been delayed by many months but has now been advertised. It is intended to award by April It is not clear what the likely benefits to Suffolk and Norfolk will be at this stage, but this will be reviewed when it becomes clearer. A member of the department has represented the NPPE on the stakeholder group for this exercise The Procurement Hub (NPPH), which has not been a success to date, has been subject to a review by the HO and an action plan agreed to move it forward. Two forces are in the final stages of a pilot role out, or re implementation in the case of one force. It appears that many lessons have been learnt that have the potential to support the use of the system by other forces but further investment is likely. 4 COMMERCIAL TEAM 4.1 The commercial team operate as a predominantly facilitation team in a category management model with staff acting as single points of contact for departments and units. This allows for less confusion for users and allows for a build-up of knowledge within the team. As it is a small unit the actual work is commonly shared amongst them to balance the work load. 4.2 They follow best practice by investigating the use of pre tendered frameworks and contracts e.g ESPO, YPO, NEPO (Pro5), CCS, other forces/public sector bodies to maximise aggregation of spend and reduce unnecessary procurement activity where appropriate. s do not reduce procurement effort where mini competitions are required to be carried out, but they do negate the need to carry out full EU tender processes. The commercial team are very proactive in national working groups where it is felt most influence can be made to police procurement which in the long run will be of benefit locally. 4.3 A lot of effort has been expended in trying to align contracts across both organisations and every effort is made to maximise our aggregated requirement. All contracts are registered on the National Contracts Database on which information is available for public scrutiny; tender opportunities are advertised on contracts finder, the national e-tendering system and published on the website. Mini competition activity is carried out through the national e-tendering solution or following specific framework requirements. 4.4 Commercial Activity 3

4 Contracts Awarded within Q1&2 reporting period valued over 50k: Activity Value End Date Option to Extend Vehicle Accident Repairs 800,000 02/05/2018 No Vehicle Recovery 327,000 30/06/ months Building Fabric Maintenance 1,000,000 01/06/ months Electrical Maintenance 1,100,000 01/06/ months HVAC 800,000 01/06/ months Long and Short-term Self-drive Vehicle Hire 382,000 31/03/ months Temporary Staff 4,000,000 31/ N/A SMS Messaging Serving 54,400 31/10/ Months ANPR Back Office Function 205,000 31/10/2017 N/A ANPR In Car Equipment 367,000 31/12/2015 One off purchase ANPR Van 51,597 30/11/2014 N/A Present Work in Progress: Activity Value End Date Strategy Evidence Based Policing 716,000 30//11/2017 Local Tender Energy (and management Local Agent through 8.8m 31/03/2019 thereof) collaborative contract P Cards Nil cost to us 18/08/2018 CCS PV Panels 150,000 31/07/2015 Pro5 Removal Services 120,000 31/07/2015 Pro5 Body Worn Cameras 80,000 31/12/2015 Pro5 ID Scanner 60,000 31/12/2014 TBC CCR Telephony 250,000 31/03/2015 TBC PSN (P) 100,000 31/10/2015 CCS FOI Case management 90,000 N/K Local Tender Microsoft EA Agreement 800,000 31/01/2015 CCS SIP Telephony 160,000 31/03/2015 Local Tender Website 500,000 31/03/2015 Local Tender GPS Tracking Devices 60,000 31/12/2015 Local Tender ANPR Phase 2 Static Sites 310,000 31/03/2015 Local Panel Vans Small 140,000 04/10/2014 Vans Medium 100,000 04/10/2014 Armed Response Vehicles 220,000 04/10/2014 Police Pensions and Pensions 500,000 31/08/2017 Police Payroll Forensic Medical Examination Services - PICS 7,000,000 31/03/2015 Regional Police Collaboration 4

5 Forensic Medical Examination Services - SARCS 1,100,000 31/03/2015 Local Tender Planned Contract Replacement and Review Activity Quarter 3 & 4: Activity Value End Date Intended Strategy Body Armour to HOSDB 900,000 30/11/2014 Standard HG1A/KR1 extension Commoditised Hardware and Software Sprint 2 replacement 3,000,000 15/03/2015 CCS Livescan national system 65,328 31/03/2015 NMIS (National Management Info 39,000 30/09/2014 Services) national system ANPR In Car Vehicle Cameras 366, /08/2015 Local Tender Mobile Computing and Working national imitative 340, /03/2015 CCS s Emergency Boarding and Securing Services 300, /01/2015 Local Tender CCR Touch Screen Support and Maintenance upgrade 300, /04/2015 Local Tender Internal Audit Services 267, /06/2015 TBC Provision of Telephony Charges and ISDN Line rental 160, /07/2015 CCS Force Medical Advisor 129, /08/2015 Local Tender Voice Connect Suffolk voice mail - replacement 104, /03/2015 TBC Mobile Telephony 100, /03/2015 TBC Mobile ANPR Equipment 95, /03/2015 CCS s ANPR Fixed Cameras 94, /03/2015 CCS s Recording & Storage Media 90, /05/2015 TBC CCR Voice Message Recording System maintenance /06/2015 TBC Soft Shell Jacket (Fleece) 160, /12/2014 Provision of Financial and Personal Data Service (Experian) 70, /10/2015 TBC Uniform Trousers 350, /02/2015 Homewatch Software / Police Direct 60, /09/2014 Local Tender Legal Services - Norfolk 20,000 31/03/2015 TBC Stationery 440,000 31/07/2016 CCS IT Consumables 520,000 31/07/2016 Potential CCS Catering 500,000 31/05/2015 TBC PABX Maintenance Support Service 50, /03/2015 CCS Low, Intermediate and High Performance Cars 6,000,000 31/12/2018 CCS 5

6 5 SINGLE TENDER ACTIONS (STA) 5.1 Contract Standing Orders specify certain conditions when STA are permissible and a process is in place to review those requests. Due to the nature of joint procurement activity these are not identified as force specific unless they are clearly for an individual force. There have been a total of thirteen single tender action requests forwarded from the Head of Procurement and Supplies to the ACO(R) s during the financial year to date. Eight were joint and five Norfolk specific. Nine were approved and four rejected. 5.2 The numbers are felt to be low taking joint spend into consideration. There are no identified patterns of requests and the process of commercial scrutiny prior to being presented for final review has been successful in reducing numbers. 6 SAVINGS 6.1 There is a requirement to report procurement, cashable, notional and efficiency savings to the HO on a quarterly basis, details of savings reported are as follows: Cashable savings of 79,354 achieved from hotel and accommodation bookings, reduced rail fares, negotiated price reductions for software and re-tendering of a joint text messaging service. Notional saving 125,400 reduction in ANPR costs, clothing and uniform items. Cost Avoidance 56,438 achieved from challenges for retrospective rebates, billing errors, equipment hire and contract extensions. 7 WAY FORWARD 7.1 The commercial team will continue to develop working relationships with all areas of business working with the senior management teams to ensure early engagement on forthcoming projects as well as management of the contract replacement programme. They will continue to challenge the need, specifications and volumes with departments to reduce expenditure wherever possible. 7.2 A new EU Procurement Directive became effective during 2014 and will be enacted in the Public Contract Regulations This will have some impact on the current procedures which will require some modification. The Remedies Directive remains in force. 7.3 A new national e-tendering system is being implemented in the next three months. This will enable easier collaboration across the police service and also, being lower cost than the current system, allow more local users to undertake lower level quotations ensuring compliance with Contract Standing Orders. 7.4 With the introduction of joint ERP, further opportunities to aggregate spend and manage demand will arise by visibility of all procurement activity. It is anticipated that improvements to workflow for low value transactional procurement will also allow the commercial team to target other areas of spend. 8 SUPPLIES 8.1 The supplies team consists of two staff members who coordinate the purchasing activity of both forces and act as the purchasing champions for the separate financial 6

7 system purchasing modules. They act as the initial gate keeper for low level routine purchasing activity and support users in operating the system. 8.2 Since formation they have been trying to rationalise how the forces purchasing activity operates and gathering information to inform how the ERP system should best be utilised. 8.3 During this reporting period they have carried out further face to face training with users of the Oracle system to assist with the devolvement of transactional activity to units to reduce duplication of effort. 9 STORES 9.1 There remain two stores, one in each force headquarters. However, much work has been done on aligning uniform entitlements to allow for a single joint store as originally envisaged. 9.2 The stores team are preparing for the introduction for the ERP system with the end state being a single inventory with a joint general clothing store at OCC and specialist and specific Suffolk constabulary uniform being held at PHQ. 9.3 Both stores teams have been fully stretched with the activities resulting from the rationalisation of joint uniform. This has been exacerbated through difficulties with the supply chain which has been affected by slow recovery from the down turn and a negative impact on the perception of suppliers on how the national uniform managed service may affect them and are holding less stock. 9.4 The rolling out of the capital body armour replacement programme is ongoing and officers for 2014 to 2015 are being called forward for measurement and ordering. 9.5 Future Activity 9.6 The rationalisation of stores in harmony with the roll out of ERP will be a key feature of the forthcoming activity. 10. COMMISSIONING 10.1 The department has provided support in the commissioning of grant allocations for an Independent Domestic Violence Advisory Service for Suffolk and joint Evidence Based Policing service, which involves applying scientific analysis to provide logic in making policing decisions that will help limit and reduce future crime levels and provide informed judgement on policing methods, allowing decisions to be made with some certainty on how best to deploy limited resources. 11. TRENDS 11.1 The HO has engaged a supplier to carry out analysis of national Management Information (MI) on spend provided by forces. This has recently altered from a high level annual spend data requirement to a more detailed quarterly return. It is presently very time consuming and there are some concerns over the quality of the national data as there is no national standard for financial systems to categories spend. However this is being improved over time and will provide some useful information to base our future procurement activity on including base lining ourselves to other organisations. 7

8 12. COLLABORATION 12.1 In addition to collaboration with Norfolk and other Constabularies, opportunities are continually explored using the data from the Bravo Solutions exercise as well as those that present themselves as part of the Suffolk Countywide Procurement Group. This is attended by procurement specialists from Suffolk County Council, District Authorities, and NHS and East of England Local Government Association Recent examples of collaboration have been contracts for Body Armour (Suffolk County Council - Trading Standards Dept) Electricity and Gas, Smart metering and Energy Management Services (EFMS - Eastern Facilities Management Services) Minor and Major Works (Suffolk County Council) 12.3 Opportunities with Norfolk County Council have included Interpreter Services and Vehicle Accident Repairs. 13. PRINT UNIT 13.1 The joint print room based in Suffolk Headquarters has had some modernisation carried out and are moving to a print on demand service moving away from holding unnecessary stock items There has been a concentration on reducing the number forms used across both organisations and where possible lining up forms used for the same requirement thereby creating savings. 14. DEMAND AND CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 14.1 A recent audit has provided impetus for contract management plans which were already being implemented by the commercial team. With constant change within departments there has been a reduced focus by contract owners in areas of less critical contracts. The commercial team will be providing guidance and support to contract owners to ensure that wherever possible added value is gained or costs and demand reduced. 15. TRAINING 15.1 Three members of the Commercial Team are currently undertaking formal training to achieve their Level 4 Diploma in Purchasing and Supply. This will provide a professional qualification and is already delivering benefits to the department from the modules covered so far Opportunities for professional development are sought and staff take advantage of free training offered by the Crown Commercial Service, the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply and East of England Local Government Association. Some training has to be purchased but this is shared around the team with peer updates to maximise the value A training needs analysis for all staff in the department has been completed to identify gaps in local knowledge and general rather than professional training requirements. 16. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: 16.1 None other than those indicated in the main body of the report. 8

9 17. OTHER IMPLICATIONS AND RISKS: 17.1 No changes are needed to the PCC risk register. ORIGINATOR CHECKLIST (MUST BE COMPLETED) PLEASE STATE YES OR NO Has legal advice been sought on this submission? No Has the PCC s Chief Finance Officer been consulted? No Have equality, diversity and human rights implications been considered including equality analysis, as appropriate? Have human resource implications been considered? Is the recommendation consistent with the objectives in the Police and Crime Plan? Has consultation been undertaken with people or agencies likely to be affected by the recommendation? Has communications advice been sought on areas of likely media interest and how they might be managed? No Have all relevant ethical factors been taken into consideration in developing this submission? 9