Decisions

This is a supporting service required for Bus Franchising as delegated in the key decision of the GMCA on the 28 May 2021 and is required to support the operation of the Franchised bus services from September 2023.

To enter into a commercial agreement for the provision of an Insight and Analytics Enterprise Data Warehouse Service Agreement for an initial period of 12 months at a contract value of £909,041. The contract has an option to extend for a further 12 months. The agreement is in the form of a Call-Off Contract entered into pursuant to the G-Cloud 13 Framework. Further details are set out in the Part B report appended.

In January 2023, GMCA approved grant awards of UKSPF for 8 SME workspace proposals in Greater Manchester. The report also identified other schemes that required review and due diligence before progressing. This was delegated to the GMCA Chief Executive, Monitoring Officer and Treasurer.

Following further development one of those schemes, Radcliffe Enterprise Centre has now passed the threshold for UKSPF grant funding and using the delegated powers set out in the GMCA report of January 2023, GMCA’s Chief Executive is content to approve UKSPF grant funding of up to £1,270,423 for the Radcliffe Enterprise Centre to create SME workspace.

The proposal for SME workspace at Radcliffe Enterprise Centre in Bury is awarded £1,270,423 of Greater Manchester’s UKSPF to support Local Business under UKSPF priority E22.

GMCA have run a competitive process. In total 15 bids were received.

Each bid was sent to a full evaluation panel. GMCA’s Information Governance Team also reviewed each provider’s IG submission to ensure that they were acceptable, and the finances of the bidding company were also checked.

The mini-competition comprised of 2 parts, covering (80%) Quality, (20%) Social Value via the Social Value Portal. The Quality selection process involved evaluating the bidders’ responses on a number of criteria including:
- Learning Delivery Approach
- Strategic Approach
- Track Record and Quality
- Engagement and Stakeholder Management
- Performance Management and Monitoring
- Financial Value for Money

Following evaluation, the bidders were ranked based on their total score. Contracts will be awarded to the bidders listed above. Any bidder who scored two or below on two or more questions, did not pass the financial checks or did not meet the minimum OFSTED requirements were excluded from the process.

Following a competitive procurement process using GMCA’s Education Work and Skills Flexible Procurement System, GMCA wishes to award the following contracts:
Mantra Learning Ltd - £612,738.34
Netcom Training Ltd - £869,610.00
IVS - £499,464.00
Barfection - £217,425.00
Get SET Academy - £315,785.00
Portland Training - £532,501.42
Plato Training - £471,344.56
The Construction Skills People Ltd - £305,961.00
Rochdale Training - £203,745.00
The Childcare Company Ltd - £1,071,425.68
The intent of the GM’s Adult Skills Level 3 targeted offer is to support:
The priorities of the Greater Manchester Strategy 2021 – 2031 good lives for all:
Greater Manchester is a great place to grow up, get on and grow old; a great place to invest, do business, visit and study to become:
A greener Greater Manchester: responding to the climate emergency.
A fairer Greater Manchester: addressing inequalities and improving wellbeing for all
A more prosperous Greater Manchester: driving local and UK growth.
To develop the occupational competences needed to progress further in learning, work or careers, on courses aligned to Greater Manchester’s key growth and foundational occupational areas.
To improve the skills of residents and be more productive or retrain to find a better job supporting in-work progression for adults into higher level careers, adapting to changing employer needs.
Target occupational skills gaps to support our business needs, providing employers with a locally skilled workforce.

GM’s Adult Skills Level 3 Targeted Offer incorporates two funding streams under one single pot:
An allocation of funding from GM’s core devolved Adult Education Budget for targeted Level 3 delivery, and
GMs devolved ringfenced allocation from the national Free Courses for Jobs Level 3 offer.

Within the funding streams there are three core strands, differentiated by a resident’s eligibility and a set of fully funded Level 3 qualifications. These strands are as follows:
GM Local Level 3 for Adults
GM FCFJ Level 3 Local Funding Flexibility
National Free Courses for Jobs Level 3 offer

Activity can be summarised as follows:
Overall value: £5.1m for the period September 2023 to July 2024.
Bidders can propose activity with a minimum contract value of £150,000 to a maximum contract value of £1,500,000.
It should be noted that this Single Pot Level 3 mini competition does not include funding for Legal Entitlements for 19- to 23-year-olds.

The procurement process commenced with supplier engagement on 14th June 2023 where we requested bidders to complete an interest and feedback form to understand the current market conditions and potential interest.

The GMCA issued an open procurement exercise via an ITT on 7th June 2023 with a return date of 12th July 2023. By the deadline on The Chest, 3 bidders submitted a response and were taken through to the evaluation stage. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation process was undertaken.

The table on the attached decision notice outlines the overall outcomes of the grant allocation process.

Following a competitive call for competition process, GMCA wishes to award a contract for services of £500,000 (10% of the contract value) for the GMCA Community Grants Managing Agent (MA) to Workers’ Educational Association. This forms part of the delivery of the GM Multiply Scheme, Adult Education Budget and UK Shared Prosperity Fund in Greater Manchester. Delivery will take place from October 2023 and all contract activity must conclude by 31 March 2025.

The Managing Agent (MA) will receive a management fee of £500,000 to administer grant funding to organisations. However, the total grant funding which will be available to organisations is worth £4,555,300.00. This means that total budget for this project is £5,055,300.00.
The Managing Agent will flow through this grant funding to organisations who will submit bids in response to “call for applications” and claim this spend retrospectively from GMCA on a quarterly basis.

GMCA will pay for actual spend related to the award of grants on production of the following
1. Quarterly reporting, which will include
a. Project title
b. Financial value
c. Organisation awarded
d. Brief description of the project
e. Current progress
2. Evidence provided will include
a. Invoices from Grantees
b. Completed subsidy checklist
3. GMCA will also sample check additional evidence on a regular basis to see defrayed expenditure

Approval to the allocation of further funding will support the strategic objectives of GMCA to increase the supply of housing within GM.

1. To approve the allocation of funding from the GM Brownfield programme to the following scheme:

DEVELOPER Glenbrook
SCHEME Lumina Village
DISTRICT Trafford
UNITS 639
GRANT REQUIRED £3m

2. Delegate authority to the GMCA Treasurer, acting in conjunction with the GMCA Monitoring Officer, to effect the necessary legal agreements for the individual grants between the GMCA and grant recipients.

The draft STP2 contains much that GM would support, especially - in broad terms - the opportunity it provides to address pan-northern transport issues as part of a range of strategic ambitions to transform the region’s economic performance, and the commitment made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Given GM’s current and planned future role at the heart of both the Strategic Road Network and the rail network in the North of England, the consultation response will sets out what the GM city-region needs and how future and their impacts need to be fully understood to ensure the right investment is brought forward.

Unlike the first STP, the draft STP2 does not set, and map out, priorities for investment in the north, such as those relating to Strategic Highways (Road Investment Strategy 3), where TfN has been working the LTAs on the case, and priorities, for investment.
The draft STP2 does not set out a pathway to achieve the strategic priorities which are measurable in the next five, ten- and twenty-years’ time. TfGM understands that the STP2 is a document setting out TfN’s vision and strategic ambitions, but this could be enhanced with an accompanied document that details a clear pathway and timeline of how the strategic ambitions/priorities will be delivered. An example of this would be in TfGM’s 2040 transport strategy where we have set out delivery of our strategic priorities in the short, medium and long-term.
Given the position of Greater Manchester in, and the form of, the National Rail and Strategic Road networks, the operational and reliability issues arising at these locations have implications for travellers and businesses across the north, as well as for the city region, however the STP does not currently make a strong case for that investment.
While we welcome the STP call for delivery of HS2 and NPR in full, we are disappointed that the form of station for HS2 and NPR at Piccadilly is not mentioned. The firm GM position is that it is imperative that an underground station be provided at Piccadilly, which would allow NS2 and NPR services to travel through between Liverpool / Manchester Airport to Leeds / West Yorkshire / Northeast without reversing. We would request that this be included in the final version.

To approve TfGM and GMCA’s response to Transport for the North’s draft Strategic Transport Plan 2 which had been published for public consultation.