6.4. Analysis of the current pipeline includes:
Contracts due to expire within the next eighteen months – 2,196
Strategic procurement projects currently under way - 301
Contracts valued at £2 million and above - 77
Directorate and category level analysis
Pipeline activity by financial year
6.5. Improved visibility of upcoming procurement activity supports early market engagement, reduces financial risk and enables better coordination of commercial resources.
6.6. The pipeline also assists the Council in identifying opportunities to maximise social value, support local suppliers and improve procurement outcomes
6.7. Cross function working is essential in the successful delivery of procurements activity which requires Commissioning teams, Procurement team, Contracts Managers and other stakeholders engaging at the earliest opportunity.
6.8. To mitigate against unnecessary direct awards of contracts, extension and variation of existing contracts, officers must engage at the earliest opportunity to develop a clear procurement timetable, aligned with any transformational activity related to the service being delivered. This approach to working is being implemented but the Council recognises that improvements are still needed as evidenced by the high number of direct awards that continue This needs to a fact-based evidence approach to support the recommended routes to market which must allow sufficient time for a competitive process.
7.1. The council has struggled to develop a “single source of truth” for all contracts activity due to a disparate number of systems supporting Source to Contract activity. Further, there is limited integration of systems which means there is an over-reliance on manual interventions.
7.2. The Council has conducted a discovery exercise to explore the feasibility of a consolidated view of the Council's contracts.
7.3. The work to date has highlighted the risk related to fragmented data and data ownership, and found that substantial contract, supplier and financial