Multi-million pound assessment centre for vulnerable children to be rapidly re-tendered
The Cabinet of Conwy County Borough Council is expected to approve recommendations to enter into a streamlined public procurement process following the collapse into administration of WRW Construction who had secured the £2.7m contract for Bwthyn y Ddôl - a centre for vulnerable children needing assessment - in Eirias park in Colwyn Bay.
The new unit, which will be named Bwthyn y Ddôl, will be a place where children can be safely cared for, supported and supervised by a residential team, and where children and their parents and carers can meet an on-site therapeutic team, and is the brainchild of social care and mental health staff from Conwy and Denbighshire local authorities and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
The project is fully funded through the Welsh Government’s Intermediate Care Fund (ICF), with a requirement to spend the funding by March 2022, and for groundworks to be completed by the end of November 2021.
The collapse of WRW Construction Ltd, appointed in April 2021 as the Council’s principal contractor, had raised concerns that the Council would not be able to achieve the grant funding conditions in sufficient time.
However, a special Cabinet meeting of Conwy Council held last month was presented with recommendations from the Council’s salaried officers that the Council should re-engage with the three unsuccessful bidders, who were evaluated during the scheme’s original procurement process, with a view to procuring a single principal contractor for all of the works. Officers added:
“This would ensure competitive tendering, but also expedite the procurement process and would allow the opportunity to mitigate the significant risks […] relating to undertaking the groundworks and ensuring the ICF grant was spent by March 2022.”
Whilst far from common place, the re-running of a recent procurement process due to circumstances outside of the control of the contracting authority and for reasons of urgency are permitted under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (which derive from the EU Public Procurement Directives).
It should only be used to address the urgent requirement of the procurement, be for a period no greater than is strictly necessary, and public authorities must procure any other related goods, works and services under a normal procurement procedure.
Arfon Consulting’s specialist procurement staff can advise on this, or any other, public procurement procedures or contracts. Just get in touch.
