Issue details

The decision is whether to enter in to a formal arrangement with the current provider, RMG Ltd for one year to undertake statutory Sec. 202 homeless review decisions and any associated administrative work. Since April 2015 due to recruitment problems we have been outsourcing reviews, which has enabled us to keep control of our backlog and number of cases in TA under review. The quality of the decisions has been consistently high.In addition, outsourcing reviews in this way rather than appointing a reviews officer has contributed to an underspend in the budget (if we disregard TA) and has proven to be an economical option for the Council.

There is a limited market for this kind of service and we have an effective client relationship with this provider. There would be a cost in replacing this with another short term provider who would have a steep learning curve and this would impact upon performance and cost to the council. The service is low value and the flow of work is hard to predict. Because of this we need 12 months to review the requirements for a longer term arrangement and put a proper procurement into place.

Legal services has advised that this is a decision that has to be made by cabinet under the requirements of the Housing Act.