Faster payments help for firms by Telford council during Covid crisis

The council's procurement chief, Sarah Bass, also writes that some home-to-school transport providers repurposed their vehicles and drivers to deliver food and medicines during lockdown.

In her report, which will be presented to the borough’s cabinet next week, she writes that government regulations introduced throughout the spring allowed local authorities to amend the way they worked with companies providing them goods and services.

“This has helped businesses both locally and nationally continue to work during the pandemic and ensured we were able to sustain a market to support the council’s core services,” she adds.

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Procurement policy notes (PPNs), published by the Cabinet office in February and June, “encouraged councils to consider the various steps that could be taken to support its supply chain that would also lead to business sustainability”, Ms Bass writes.

Telford & Wrekin Council offered its various suppliers accelerated or advance payments, more frequent invoicing, changes to delivery locations and timings and revised deadlines.

The February PPN, Ms Bass writes, gave councils “the opportunity to extend contracts where they were due to expire to reduce the burden of tender submission on businesses”.

“This support, along with the council’s business grants for local suppliers, enabled us to keep our supply chain going through the pandemic and be there for us as we move into recovery,” she writes.

“Supplier relief was used to support a number of contractors providing home-to-school transport who varied their services to support transport in other ways during the height of the pandemic, such as prescription and food parcel deliveries.

Difficult

“They also continued to support children of key workers getting to school.”

However, supplier relief was not available to businesses using the Job Retention Scheme, also known as the “furlough scheme”, as doing so “would be classed as double-funding from central government”.

“All in-borough social care providers have been supported with £860,000 of Covid funding to help them sustain their business so they are there to support not only council-commissioned care but also care for those who purchase their own.”

Of this, £859,400 went to providers the local authority has a contract with, and £2,000 more supported non-council care providers, according to a breakdown published by the local authority.

“This funding helped providers manage infection prevention control and support their staff to work in very difficult environments,” Ms Bass adds.

Titled “Procurement Update”, her report will be discussed by Telford and Wrekin’s 10-member cabinet when it meets remotely on Thursday, October 8.