More light shone by York Council on contracts

More details are being made available of a contract for the supply of furniture and “white goods” (e.g. fridges)  to Universal Credit claimants in York.  

It is part of the York Financial Assistance scheme, which is designed to help the poorest members of  our community cope with budgeting pressures.

The contract is expected to be worth over £250,000.

Once again the Executive member (Nigel Ayre) has agreed to consider this proposal at a public decision meeting which is being held on 16th December.  

Although the decision to seek tenders for this service isn’t particularly controversial, and any expenditure will be within budget allocations, the move to publish background papers will be welcomed by many taxpayers.

Hopefully other Executive Councillors will adopt a similar approach to transparency in the  future.

The cost of new contracts entered into by the York Council can be viewed on a national register via this link https://procontract.due-north.com/ContractsRegister/Index

York Community Furniture Store

The Community Furniture Store (CFS) is the current provider of household goods for the York Financial Assistance Scheme (YFAS). The scheme, which is funded by City of York Council, provides basic furnishing for people in need as a result of a urgent personal circumstances.

More details can be found by clicking here

The York CFS is located at the Raylor Centre in James Street. It also has branches in Selby and Scarborough.

Residents are urged to donate any unused items of furniture, which are in good condition, to the scheme. The CFS arranges to pick up the items.

Background information published by Council

Another big York Council contract let in behind closed doors decision

£1 million plus contract for social care started on 1st February 2017 – authorised last week

In April 2016, the York Council considered a major shake-up in its housing support programme. The service had been costing York taxpayers over £2.5 million a year.

The users of this support programmes short term services include the homeless, young people at risk (16-25 year olds including care leavers and teenage parents) offenders, mental health, substance misuse and domestic violence.

Long term services support residents with permanent needs including older people; learning disabilities and mental health.

A report to the Council’s Executive last April said,

“The approach is one of “co-design” with the Council setting some minimum requirements but requesting providers to submit proposals that identify the added value that can be provided and setting out a five-year vision for service delivery which will further enhance provision across the City”

It was expected the the new approach would save taxpayers around £750,000 a year. The new approach anticipated an increase in activity by volunteers.

At about the same time the government announced a cap on the total amount of housing benefit payable to social housing tenants. At the time this was expected to impact heavily on supported accommodation services  like hostels.

The 2016 report said,

“There is however apprehension amongst providers and partners regarding the significant service change that will take place and any resulting reductions in capacity. Some customers have also expressed anxiety over potential change of providers but this will not be known until after the outcome of the proposed “tender” exercise”.

The services put out to tender were Community Wellbeing and Support Services for:

  • Adults (including Mental Health, Homeless, substance misuse, offenders and Young People)
  • Older Persons
  • Young People – Supported Lodgings

The expected total cost of providing these services was £1.27 million (a saving of £750,000)

It had been anticipated that the contract would be awarded in September 2016 with implementation from 1st February 2017.

It appears that the contracts have only recently been authorised although they were implemented at the beginning of the month. (There is a suspicion that the responsible Council official actually agreed the contract in December).

Papers were published on the Council’s web site on Friday but reveal very little either about the cost of the new contracts or their specifications (i.e. targets, outcomes).

September 2017 specification promise

There will be a suspicion that these have only been made public as an afterthought and were possibly prompted by last week’s revelations about previous contract failures.

The three contacts awarded were:

So, substantial contracts have been let apparently without the involvement of the responsible Councillors, with no visibility of the “vision”, the number of tenders received haven’t been reported, nor has the value of the individual contracts or the expected outcome specification/targets.

Some further explanations are needed we think!

*Bizarrely the report claims that the specification for this service will not be agreed until “Sept 2017”