That the Director of Corporate Services be given delegated authority to appoint the successful bidders identified through the Procurement process to the Framework for a 4-year period as preferred suppliers to the Council and SWISCo for interim workers.

If the Council does not have an Agency Framework Agreement in place, the Council will not be able to source interim workers at short notice which will impact on service delivery and discharging some of its statutory functions.

No other options had been considered, the Council and SWISCo need to ensure that there was an Agency Framework Agreement in place so that when needed interim workers could be hired to ensure that service delivery and statutory functions were discharged appropriately.

A Framework Agreement was the best option as it allowed the Council and SWISCo to use several approved suppliers to meet the needs to the services. In a challenging Recruitment market, the Council had to reach far in order to secure workers in some cases.

This decision will come into force and may be implemented on 30 October 2023 unless the call-in procedure is triggered (as set out in the Standing Orders in relation to Overview and Scrutiny).

The Cabinets approval was sought to award the Agency Framework Agreement for Torbay Council and SWISCo thereby appointing a number of successful suppliers following a procurement exercise.

The current framework would come to an end on 2 January 2024.  It was critical for service delivery that the Council and SWISCo had appropriate suppliers in place to deliver agency worker requirements, which have been appropriately procured. 

The intended outcome was that the Council and SWISCo would have a new Agency Framework Agreement with a number of preferred Recruitment partners for interim workers who were able to meet the Council’s organisational requirements.

At the meeting Councillor Tyerman proposed and Councillor Billings seconded a motion that was agreed unanimously but the Cabinet, as set out above.

None.