Regional Improvement & Efficiency Partnership

The West of England Partnership are working on setting up a framework for specialist consultancy support for transport major schemes, supported by funds from the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (REIP) administered by South West Councils.

The major scheme development process is a time and resource intensive process. It is estimated that to bring the sub-regions major schemes programme through to implementation could require the investment of perhaps £55m in development costs much of which translates into third party consultancy work procured by the authorities.

The development of major transport schemes results in peaks and troughs of workload.  The absence of flexible consultancy support arrangements (which provide sufficient capacity, skills, are robustly procured and justify value for money) can be a barrier to the delivery of the major schemes programme as without them the workload is unmanageable.

Specialist skills in the transport major  schemes work area are not available in sufficient quantity, quality and flexibility through existing mechanisms either within the authorities or as far is known through procurement processes of other Regional or National bodies.

The creation of framework arrangements for transport consultancy support provides clear benefits in providing flexibility to the partnership authorities. As a result of the larger scale and volume of work likely through a framework with a sub-regional dimension, it would be expected that a framework will secure more competitive rates than procurement undertaken at an individual project or authority level.

The availability of specialist support and the ability to be able to draw on this flexibly is an important risk mitigation strategy for the delivery of the West of England major schemes programme. For example a one week delay across this programme equates to some £500,000 in increased construction cost arising from inflation.

By facilitating the delivery of the transport major schemes programme, the project contributes to the realisation of their benefits. Therefore this project will contribute to the Government’s emerging key goals in line with objectives of Delivering a Sustainable Transport System (DaSTS): 

·       Tackling climate change
·       Supporting economic growth
·       Promoting equality and opportunity
·       Improving safety, security and health
·       Improving quality of life.

Widening access to the Framework

This process will establish a framework which draws upon wider needs in its specification and which through the preparation of the contract documentation can be used by other public sector bodies to commission work on their major transport schemes.

Learning from the outcomes of this project

The outcomes and learning points from this process should assist other local authorities and public sector organisations considering the procurement of similar major transport schemes consultancy support, those seeking to establish framework arrangements, and in particular those investigating mechanisms for joint procurement such as for cross boundary schemes or projects. The sharing of outcomes and learning points from this process will be supported by:

• The production of the report at the end of the project. This will set out a review of existing practice and the identified strengths and weaknesses of current procurement approaches. The report will set out the methodology employed in the creation of the framework including example forms and templates for aspects of the process (eg tender evaluation matrix). This report will be available via this website and will be widely promoted by the West of England Partnership and the individual authorities, including dissemination to governmental bodies within the South West Region, and to a wider national audience.
• Hosting a workshop for the Region’s practitioners and other interested bodies from the wider transport major schemes and procurement communities.
• Sharing the benefits at appropriate national events.