Agenda item

Report attached.

The Cabinet considered a report of Councillor Melissa Fisher, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regeneration, seeking approval to waive the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules in respect of the direct procurement of the Locata Pro Homelessness, Prevention and Advice (HPA2) software, which was currently the homelessness management and reporting software system used by the Council.

Councillor Fisher provided a short introduction to the report, which tied in closely with the previous item of business.  She highlighted the contract duration, annual costs and that its purpose was to support the Housing Advice and Homelessness Team.

Councillor Khan asked whether any alternative systems had been considered.  Councillor Fisher referred him to Paragraphs 3.5 and 4.1 of the report, which explained why now was not an appropriate time to change the system being used.

Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

The introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017(HRA) had placed new legal duties on local authorities and amended existing homelessness legislation set out in the Housing Act 1996.

The HRA (enacted in 2018) placed prevention at the heart of homelessness service delivery.  It introduced new duties for local housing authorities to intervene earlier and work to prevent and relieve homelessness, regardless of whether or not households were in priority need.

The Council had entered into a contract with Locata (Housing Services) Ltd in 2018 for a 2 year term with an option to renew annually for a further 2 years.  This contract had expired in April 2022.  The Council had continued to use this system on an out of contract annual fee with Locata (Housing Services) Ltd.

The Council needed a homelessness management system on a daily basis to manage all homelessness casework.  The Locata system provided reports on homelessness statistics, data and information on active and closed homelessness cases.  Continuous software system support was essential to ensure continuity of service delivery, compliance with the requirements of the HRA and a tool which supported auditing of the service.  The data was also used to understand the level of homelessness both locally and nationally, informed policy making and could support grant funding and bids for new interventions.

The Housing Advice and Homelessness service was currently facing significant pressures, which included the additional work of dealing with homeless applications from asylum seekers who had received a positive asylum decision, households arriving under the family reunion scheme and an increasing number of very complex homeless cases.  Therefore, this was not an ideal time to consider changing an essential software system.  In addition, given the prospect of local government reorganisation, the disruption of a possible move to a new provider did not appear to be an appropriate use of time and resources.  The new agreement with Locata would run for 2 years (at a cost of £12,000 per annum), with an option to extend for a further 2 years.  This fit well with the reorganisation timescale and would enable a successor organisation to easily move to a single provider of this information.

The Council required a homelessness case management and reporting system to ensure it could report on all statutory homelessness assessments in compliance with the requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act.

Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection

A procurement exercise for a homelessness management and reporting system had been considered but rejected for the reasons set out in Paragraph 3.5 of the report.  Cabinet could ask for the contract to be procured, but this was not recommended for the reasons given.

Resolved                                                       -    That Cabinet:

(1)   Agrees to waive the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules in respect of the purchase of Locata Pro Homelessness, Prevention and Advice software from Locata (Housing Services) Ltd.

(2)   Delegates authority to the Head of Regeneration and Housing in consultation with the Executive Director (Legal and Democratic Services) to draw up, finalise and execute a contract with Locata (Housing Services) Ltd in respect of the purchase.