Decisions

Public health expertise has been crucial to the development of the GM Violence Reduction Unit and the programme has greatly benefited from this since its inception in 2019. Throughout this time, input has been through a succession of Public Health Registrar appointments as part of the national registrar training programme. However, between January 2021 and May 2021 there was no Public Health Registrar available which highlighted the potential risk of solely relying on registrar support. The current Registrar is due to stay in post until Aug-2022 when the VRU will be faced with another gap in support, with no plans in place for a replacement, a process over which the VRU has limited influence.

Therefore, to ensure a strong public health approach is adopted across Greater Manchester for Violence Prevention, it is critical to incorporate senior public health expertise and knowledge. The individual must be an expert in the field of Public Health, (registered in GMC/UKPHR/GDC), with particular specialist knowledge in Violence Prevention, so that the public health principles can be embedded into a system wide approach. They must also be a senior and system leader with extensive knowledge and expertise of public sector, in particular NHS and local government, so that cultures and organisational boundaries are understood, yet can be challenged.

Benefits to the VRU:
• Provide sufficient senior expertise to influence and negotiate with District Directors of Public Health and Strategic Health Leads across a range of organisations and settings
• Represent GM wide public health agenda in relation to Police, Fire and Crime to support integration within the developing locality boards and development of an Integrated Care System
• Advise Mayor and Deputy Mayor regarding opportunities and approaches to support reducing Youth Violence and Gender Based Violence
• Represent Public Health agenda at the GM Violence Reduction Governance Board and provide credible leadership and guidance at a senior level to support systemwide change and improvement
• Provide oversight of all relevant data and ways to strengthen and improve the VRU understanding of all factors relating to violence
• Oversee the production of the Violence Strategic Needs Assessment

A Public Health Consultant is appointed for 2.5 days per week, for the VRU at a cost of £87,000 per annum for a period of 2 years.

Total cost £174,000

Proposed amendments to the Articles of BlueLight Commercial were
received in April 2022 and following review, a number of questions were raised with BLC who arranged for an information workshop inviting all PCCs and their representatives.
Following this, the questions have since been answered and
the proposed amendments are now considered acceptable and can
therefore be recommended to the Deputy Mayor for approval.
1. Are you aware as to whether the Home Office will continue to fund BLC beyond April 2023 and if this is not the case, are PCCs are going to be asked to provide this funding?
BLC response - This will be discussed in the briefing sessions but there is nothing in the proposed Articles that could compel any PCC to contribute to the funding of BLC.
GMCA advice - The amendments are not related to future funding. BLC have been working with Home Office to identify future funding and a paper is due to be considered by the Treasury seeking 2 years specific funding. BLC has Home Office support and is a fundamental part of and written into the 3year CSR bid.
2. If it is the case that PCCs are going to be asked to provide funding beyond April 2023, this will have implications to your proposal to delete reserved matters and the deletion of Article 26.8.
BLC response - The funding issue is not relevant to the proposal to delete reserved matters as the cap on each members' liability is limited to £10 per member.
GMCA advice - The proposed amendment to Article 26.8 has been
withdrawn, therefore it remains that PCC Directors must constitute a
majority of the Directors present and eligible to vote upon proposals
concerning the company’s budget or finances or its strategy.
3. Could you provide clarity on the proposal for BLC to be able to enter into contracts directly as the current position is that the contracting powers sits directly with each PCC.
BLC response - This proposed amendment is intended to be clarificatory only as BLC are already doing this. The amendment formalises the position that BLC can act in the capacity of contracting authority or central purchasing body but the amendment does clearly state that this is only ‘where authorised to do so’ and in each case a Sub-Agreement would be used to ascertain the required authority ensuring that PCCs retain their autonomy. The PCCs will continue to have a direct contractual arrangement with the suppliers
through either a call-off contract or their official purchase order.
GMCA advice - An example of the use of a sub agreement is Fleet.

Following consideration by the Deputy Monitoring officer, the
proposed amendments are acceptable and can be recommended to
the Deputy Mayor for approval, the Deputy Mayor agrees to sign the
proposed Written Resolution to be passed by way of Special
Resolution.

GMCA have run a competitive process and Fearless Adventures and DMA’s submissions were the highest scoring bidders within the 1.5 million budget.
2 submissions were received and sent to a full evaluation panel. The evaluation comprised of 3 parts, covering (80%) Quality, (10%) Social Value and (10%) Value for Money.

The Successful provider’s scores were deemed acceptable and comprehensive throughout their submission and offered the most economically advantageous tenders.

Following a competitive procurement process using GMCA’s Open Procurement Procedures, via The Chest, GMCA wishes to award a £499,928 contract to Fearless Adventures and a £154,427 contract to DMA (Data & Marketing Association). This is part of the Skills Bootcamps programme and will support over 700 learners to train into digital/tech roles during 2022/23.
Delivery is expected to start no later than end of August 2022. bootcamps must be no longer than 16 weeks and all delivery must have concluded by the end of March 2023 (with the potential for an extension dependent on good performance), and all contract activity and support must conclude no longer than 6 months after the conclusion of delivery.

This supplier provided the most economically advantageous tender which met the requirements of the project

The contract is awarded to Eric Wright Civil Engineering Limited

To complete deployment of the business-critical Windows 10 Client services Project (Project 2).
The Windows 10 Programme consists of three projects, the first two having been commissioned in 2019:
(i) Project 1 (Infrastructure Services) – technical architecture, services and cloud platform deployment
(ii) Project 2 (Client Services) – deployment of devices and operational applications
(iii) Project 3 (Transformational Services) – realisation of business benefits of the new technology
Project 1 had a budget of £1,951,320 capital and £27,500 revenue, and is in the final stages of completion with a balanced financial position.
Project 2 had an OBC budget of £23,198,005 capital and £268,249 revenue and is making good progress on its deliverables, having been the subject of delays caused by resourcing and international supply chain issues. The FBC is subject to an increase in funding of £2,147,459 capital and £373,910 revenue as a result of the delays noted above and the subsequent global shortage of component parts; the police officer uplift requiring additional hardware purchases; and the decision to purchase SIM cards following the business pilot.


Project 3 is in the process of being commissioned. It has a preliminary budget of £391,000 to procure consultancy services in developing a long-term strategy and FBC to maximise business benefits of the technology and develop early use cases in line with NEP accreditation for launching Project 2. Further funding of £350,000 - £750,000 will be required (depending on the preferred specification) which will be subject to a separate business case and associated approval process.

The decision is that:

The Deputy Mayor approves the proposals set out in the Business Case and approve the necessary investment to deliver the Windows 10 Client Services project (Project 2), and also acknowledge the requirement for future investment to deliver the Transformational Services project (Project 3), which will be subject to a full business case.

The Deputy Mayor approves funding as set out below:
• Approve the Windows 10 Client Services Project Full Business Case at an estimated cost of £25,345,464 capital and £642,159 revenue over the life of the project.
• Note the increase estimated cost of the Client Services Project since the Outline Business Case of £2,147,459 capital and £373,910 revenue (one-off) due to delays in completing and delivering the Windows 10 deployment in 2022/23 caused by international supply chain issues and global shortage of component parts as well as change to the scope of the project following the business pilot to include SIM cards and additional hardware.
• Note the slippage of £1,063,858 of capital and £284,360 of revenue from 2021/22 into 2022/23.
• Note the expected investment of up to £750,000 to deliver the Windows 10 Transformational Services (Project 3) for Office 365 transformation and SharePoint migration in 2022/23. The full business case and request for approval of funding will be brought at a later stage in the year.
• Note that the funding requirements for the overall Windows 10 programme of Infrastructure Services, Client Services and Transformational Services (projects 1 – 3) has been included in the 2022/23 revenue and capital budget and 2022/23 – 2024/25 medium-term financial plan and capital programme to be reported to Police, Fire and Crime Panel on the 7th June 2022.

GMCA have run a competitive process and Acorn’s submission scored highest after evaluation.

2 submissions were received and were sent to a full evaluation panel. All submissions were checked by GMCA’s Information Governance Team and were found to be acceptable. The finances of the bidding companies were also checked, along with the safeguarding policies submitted.

The Invitation to Tender comprised of 3 parts, covering (75%) Quality, (15%) Social Value and (10%) Price.

Following evaluation and moderation, Acorn Training were ranked highest of the two bids however, both bids were strong and this is reflected in the moderated scores for both providers.

The Successful provider’s scores were deemed acceptable and comprehensive throughout their submission and offered an economically advantageous tender. Acorn Training scored higher in the Performance & Contract Management and Financial Value for Money sections and the evaluation panel were particularly impressed with their responses concerning their delivery model, quality and track record and engagement and stakeholder management.

Following a competitive procurement process using GMCA’s Education Work and Skills Flexible Procurement System, GMCA wishes to award a £1,499,992.50 contract to Acorn Training. This is part of the Skills for Growth programme and focuses on skills in the Education (Early Years) sector in GM.
Delivery is expected to start no later than end of August 2022, enrolments must finish by end of March 2023, and all contract activity and support must conclude by the end of September 2023. Exceptional performance may result in discussions around extension option being implemented.

Using a further competition under a Crown Commercial Services Framework as a compliant and competitive tender route, Corps Security are the highest scoring bidder able to meet requirements.
The service is an ongoing requirement, and a company needs to be appointed to provide the services.

To award the contract GMFRS 0079a Security Services to the winning bidder: Corps Security for a 2-year contract, with the option to extend 3 x 12 months.

This work will be funded through Skills Underspends agreed by GMCA in October 2018, and allocated to develop activity that supports under-represented groups to access apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship activity leading to improved social mobility for the individual.

3 grants of £25k are paid to LA’s to develop Supported Apprenticeship Programmes.
GMCA, through the Education, Work and Skills Directorate, would like to build on a successful Removing Barriers to Apprenticeships project in Salford that created 15 Supported Apprenticeships for people with SEND / EHCP’s.
LA’s will be invited to submit an EOI, the the 3 that most closely meet the criteria will be allocated funding.
Additional funding is being sought for the remaining LA’s.