Passage House Assessment Centre

Contracts

• Contract 039544-2026-Con_27474-1 · PASSAGE 2000SME

  Signed

  1 Apr 2020

  Value

  £5,499,351

  Period

  1 Apr 2020 – 31 Mar 2027

  Status

  active

  • Change The Contract is being modified to extend its term in accordance with Regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The extension is necessary to ensure continuity of service provision and to avoid a gap in services. The requirement for the extension arises to allow time to plan the re-procurement of services under the Procurement Act 2023, and the newly awarded contract will commence after the expiry of the existing contract. The modification is limited strictly to the period required to bridge this gap and does not alter the overall nature or scope of the Contract., Need for additional works, services or supplies by the original contractor/concessionaire: WCC takes the view that the above-mentioned 12-month extension is a permissible modification pursuant to Regulation 72(1)(b) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The extension is required to allow sufficient time to plan and undertake a re procurement exercise, with new services scheduled to commence on 1 July 2026. The extension is necessary solely to ensure the continued provision of services until the new contract takes effect. A change in contractor cannot be made as WCC considers that it would be uneconomical and impractical for a short-term change of contractor to take place. The majority of the contract price relates to staffing costs, and the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) would apply to those staff if there was a change in contractor. WCC believes it would not be economically viable for staff to be transferred to an alternative provider of the services on a short-term basis. Additionally, a change in contractor would involve a circa three-month mobilisation to begin providing the services, thereby risking a gap in the provision of the services. Continuity and consistency of support to service users is critical and a change in contractor for an interim period could prove incredibly disruptive for those service users. In the event WCC was required to change contractor at this juncture, this would cause significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs for WCC. This would require substantial duplication of effort to mobilise a new contractor, in addition to the resource/effort required re-procure new services for the longer-term contract. This would be highly disruptive to WCC’s operations and would entail a duplication of costs that would not be an effective use of taxpayers’ funds. WCC is subject to statutory obligations to provide the services and the disruption caused by a change of contractor at this stage would create a real risk that WCC’s ability to properly discharge those obligations would be compromised.