Facilities Management Cabinet Office Control

UNCLASSIFIED

Facilities Management Cabinet Office Control

Scope

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) FM Category Team will act on behalf of Cabinet Office ERG to ensure the centralised procurement function of Facilities Management contracts is compliant. They are a mandated requirement as part of the Cabinet Office Spending Controls https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-government-spending-controls-to-deliver-billions-more-in-savings to approve all new FM procurements and contract extensions to ensure contract compliance is met.

The Cabinet Office controls have three broad objectives:

·  To stop unnecessary expenditure

·  To support organisations to deliver better value for money

·  To support organisations to deliver reform that is aligned to Government policy

The Cabinet Office controls apply to all bodies listed under the Office of National Statistics (ONS) definition of central government, this includes:

·  All Central Government Departments

·  The majority of government agencies

·  The majority of non-Departmental public bodies (NDPB’s)

·  Most other non-market bodies that are majority controlled and/or financed by Departments

·  Certain public corporations are also in scope and subject to the Cabinet Office controls including GovCos that are considered by ONS to be a central government body

The following are not included:

·  Broadcasters

·  The NHS

·  Further education colleges, universities and academies

·  Olympic bodies

·  Site Licence Companies (SLC’s)

See Section 1.8 of main controls document above for further details on scope.

Services in scope for FM Controls include (but are not limited to):

Bundled FM Contracts (Total, Hard, Soft) / Waste Management/Disposal
Security / Internal Plants & Decorations
Catering / Reprographics
Cleaning / Grounds Maintenance
Internal Repair & Maintenance / Post Room/Internal Distribution Services
M&E Repair & Maintenance / Condition Surveys
External & Structural Repair & Maintenance / Sports/Leisure/Child Care Facility Management
Courier & External Distribution Services / Office Machinery Servicing and Maintenance
Reception Services / Archiving

Approvals

All new facilities management (FM) contracts and contract extensions must be approved by the FM Category and meet with the CCS FM compliance criteria.

There is a two stage approval process spanning two controls – the FM Control and the Strategic Supplier control for new contracts over £5m total contract value where a Strategic Supplier is being appointed. The stages are detailed below:

New contracts – approval is required at Outline Business Case (OBC)/procurement strategy stage:

·  Under £5m Total Contract Value (TCV) – delegated authority is given to CCS FM to approve.

·  Over £5m TCV – CCS FM submits to CCS Commercial Intelligence Team for Ministerial approval.

New contracts – at preferred supplier stage prior to contract award:

·  Under £5m TCV – inform CCS FM.

·  Over £5m TCV – with a strategic supplier, CCS FM to submit Recommendation to Award to CCS Commercial Intelligence Team for final Ministerial approval.

·  Over £5m TCV – non-strategic supplier inform CCS FM.

Extensions – approval is required at the option appraisal stage:

·  Under £5m TCV of the extension period non-strategic supplier – delegated authority is given to CCS FM to approve.

·  Under £5m TCV of the extension period with a strategic supplier – CCS FM to request comment from CCS Commercial Intelligence Team but have delegated authority to approve in-house.

·  Over £5m TCV of the extension period with a strategic supplier - CCS FM submit to CCS Commercial Intelligence Team for Ministerial approval.

·  Over £5m TCV of the extension period non-strategic supplier - delegated authority is given to CCS FM to approve.

CCS FM will report all approval cases to the Facilities Management Board (FMB) on a monthly basis.

The Cabinet Office controls documents for both Facilities Management and Strategic Suppliers can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-controls/cabinet-office-controls-guidance-version-32

Please see process flow attached for further information including timescales.

All approval forms should be sent in the first instance to:

Please ensure FM control forms are submitted at strategy stage, prior to any OJEU or tender documents being issued and with sufficient time for decisions to be taken.

The Cabinet Office Central Spending Controls supplement existing rules and processes regarding public expenditure.

The Cabinet Office Spending Controls work within the broader framework of Managing Public Money and Treasury approval of expenditure through the practice of delegating authority to departments to enter into commitments and spend within predefined limits without specific approval.

For most controls, the Treasury has lowered the level of delegation and will not approve spending without the Cabinet Office’s prior approval. In other cases, Cabinet Office approval is required for spending in areas that have been collectively agreed as Government policy at the Public Expenditure Committee (Efficiency and Reform).

What has to be approved applies equally to ALB’s as it does to departments, but departments will continue to set ALB delegations below central approval limits.

Compliance

Compliant contracts are defined as contracting models that are approved by the Crown Commercial Service and meet with the stated compliance criteria and that fit with the wider CCS/ERG FM strategy requirements.

These are:

·  Contracts which are open to departments and their family members (ALBs, NDPBs) with the ability to be managed through the contract administration of the parent organisation. The appropriate OJEU wording must be in place in order to minimise the risk of infraction;

·  Crown Commercial Service Frameworks or other department collaborative FM frameworks;

·  Public Buying Organisation (e.g., Pro5, Procure21 contract agreements/frameworks) that fit compliant criteria;

·  Contracts that use the un-amended terms and conditions as found within the NEC suite of contracts. Where z-clauses are added, these should be made visible to ensure standard and consistent requirements are met.

They should:

·  Incorporate the FM Service Standards within any specification for offices (where applicable);

·  Have the ability to fit into the wider CCS/ERG FM strategy through contractual conditions that allow contracts to comply and integrate into a new model (e.g. transparency of FM data as requested);

·  Understand that the FM Contracting Model will be available for use from end-Feb 2015, with consideration for the following:

-  Call off procedure

-  Mobilisation period (up to 6 months)

·  Clearly demonstrate Value For Money for Government as a whole;

·  Provide Management Information on total Contract cost, actual spend and performance data and savings (PPN06) and enable management information to be shared with the CCS Managed Service function;

·  Provide a 90 day/3 month termination clause;

·  Ensure the contract includes requirement to monitor energy, waste and water consumption and provides incentives to minimise these;

·  Meets with the Government Closed Loop paper recycling policy which utilises the Government Office Supplies Contract ;

·  Where possible any catering contracts should aim for nil subsidy or best commercial model;

·  Input to the FM benchmarking service via e-PIMS;

·  Satisfy the Transparency agenda through Publication of all tender documentation (PQQ, ITT and Ts&Cs) on Business Link website;

·  Publication of all new FM contract opportunities (over £10k) in full through contracts finder; and

·  Ensure that opportunities for SME’s are available either through first or second tier contracting, fair payment practices are applied including the use of Project Bank Account where possible.

Non-compliance

Non-compliant and retrospective requests for FM contracts that have already gone to OJEU, competition or have been awarded will not be approved and will be escalated to Cabinet Office Central Controls, who will take further action with the department’s Single Point of Contact for Controls (SPOCs) which may include:

·  Escalation to senior official level – CO COO or CPO would write to relevant senior leads in ALBs or parent departments to highlight the issue

·  Escalation to Ministerial level – As above only Minister to Minister

·  Lowering of thresholds – If an organisation breeches repeatedly, the Controls team has lowered the threshold at which they are required to see approval

·  Qualification of accounts – Engagement with NAO to highlight non-compliant spend when it comes to auditing of accounts. This would flag up that spend as ‘irregular’ and kick off a reporting requirement.

Attachments

Please note that where possible, we will need to see supporting documentation as attachments. This will speed up the signing off process significantly. Where documents are not available please state clearly, in the comments boxes (which are expandable), the reasons why.

Forecast Benefits

Please clearly identify forecast cashable savings in a year on year basis that demonstrates the overall benefit for the period of the contractual arrangement using current expenditure as the baseline. These savings should be updated when submitting the Contract Award Report.

Expected Timescales (for sign off)

For all compliant and straightforward contracts and contract extensions less than £5m total contract value, there is a 10 working day SLA for the CCS FM team to return signed off approvals to departments. Where contracts are over £5m the time to sign off approvals will be 28 calendar days from submission to CCS. Those contracts with strategic suppliers will need to be submitted to the CCS Commercial Intelligence Team for further review/scrutiny and where necessary Commercial Models team. The CCS Commercial Intelligence Team will submit recommendations to the Crown Commercial Representative where a strategic supplier is known, and will decide if the request requires further ministerial approval (please see the process flow at the back of this form).

For more information or to submit an FM approval, please contact:

FM Procurement Approval Checklist
CCS FM Ref Number
Department/ALB
Title of Contract
Date
Please provide full postal address of property/ies included in the contract
(add attachment if required)
Request for / Yes / No
New Procurement
Total Contract Value (for term of contract)
e.g. 3+2 TCV is for the 3 year period not the extension period
Include fixed and variable elements
Annual Value of Procurement
Annual Value of current provision
Term of Contract (years) e.g. 3+2
Name of Current FM Contractor(s)
Timescale for Procurement Activity
OJEU Issued:
Tenders Issued:
Contract Award:
Go Live:
Contract Extension
Total Contract Value for extension period e.g. +2
Annual Value of Extension
Term of Extension (years)
TFM / Single Service / Managing Agent / Bundled
Other (please detail below)
Please provide detail of why you have chosen this approach below including reason for Extension and not New Procurement Exercise. If this is a new commercial model (i.e. aggregation of many single services into TFM) please state in the comments box below
Comments
Be sure to include:
·  What the service is
·  Date you wish to extend to
·  Why the extension is required and a tender / mini competition is not being carried out
·  Risk attributed to not extending.
We would recommend adding at the end;
It is our intention that after this extension period, we would have defined a full scope which will then be competitively tendered using the new FMCM Framework.
Type of Contract / Yes / No
Crown Commercial Service Framework
Other Departmental/Buying Organisation Framework
Other Compliant Contract (see front page for definition of compliant)
Non-Compliant Contract ( see front page for definition of non-compliant)
Comments – please explain if requirement is for Non-Compliant Contract
For each of the headlines above that you have ticked either Yes or No to, you will now need to provide details for your responses.
For example, we would advise something like:
There are currently no CCS Frameworks available that suit our requirement. FMCM would be our option if available; however we are unable to hold off until this is awarded. Any future requirement will be procured through this route.
UK SBS do not have a suitable framework and after review of other Departmental Frameworks there are no other suitable frameworks to use.
This is a Non-Compliant Contract based on the fact that it was only set up for single use and therefore is not available for other public bodies and it was not tendered on NEC terms.
Procurement Strategy / Yes / No
Business case/ procurement strategy attached
Have you built in competitive tension into the procurement approach?
Savings/benefits identified with supporting evidence for contract period
Total annual contract costs identified
Options Analysis
Gateway Review Undertaken (if so please attach as supporting evidence)
New Commercial Model for Department
Comments
For each of the headlines above that you have ticked either Yes or No to, you will now need to provide details for your responses.
For example, we would advise something like:
The business case for this requirement is built on the continuity of service in the absence of the FMCM Framework being available.
Competitive tension has been built into this contract
Savings have been identified for this extension and they are….
The total cost for the extension of this contract is ….. (provide detailed breakdown)
Options analysis is not applicable for extension
Gateway review is not applicable to this contract
The commercial model for this contract is provided.
Commercial Criteria / Yes / No
Has a breakdown of CAPEX, REVEX, OPEX and lifecycle costs been identified?
Has the pricing structure been explained? i.e. Fixed Price; Fixed Price Incentive; Cost plus Fixed Fee; Cost plus Incentive Fee; etc
Have Overhead and Margins been identified?
Has any benchmarking been carried out to confirm the existing price is competitive to ensure VFM? If yes, please detail below.
Have there been any previous contract extensions? If yes, please detail below.
Have any provisions been built into the contract on pricing? i.e. open book; day rates; indexation etc
Comments – please use the space below to provide details if these are not in any attached business cases or procurement strategies.
For each of the headlines above that you have ticked either Yes or No to, you will now need to provide details for your responses.
For example, we would advise something like:
Lifecycle costs have not been identified for this contract.
The pricing structure as well as fixed fees have been agreed, these are; …….
Overheads and margins have been outlined in the fee structure should additional resource be required.
Benchmarking has not been completed to confirm if this is a competitive price.
When the original Contract was let it was based on a 3+1+1. As we have come to the end of the 3rd year we are now looking to invoke the 1st +1 of this Contract.