Provision of support and personal day care Services for People living with Dementia

Pursuant to section 41 of the Procurement Act 2023, the Council may directly award a contract where a relevant direct award justification applies. The direct award justifications are set out in Schedule 5 of the Procurement Act. In this instance, the Council relies upon Paragraph 6 of Schedule 5, which states that:

The following conditions are met in relation to the public contract-

(a) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and

(b) there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.

The Council is satisfied that the provisions set out above have been met for the following reasons:

It is clear from the unpaid carer consultation responses, enclosed at Appendix 2, that the service required is this specific service at Bay Tree Resource Centre, and not a day care service at different premises. The evidence for this includes the importance of the environment and space considerations at the premises, and the adverse impact of a change of premises. This rationale - for continuing with the same provider, at the premises that the provider owns, and built using their own fundraising - is aligned to the rationale for sustaining the service and not asking people to move to a Council Complex Needs Centre.

It is not considered reasonable to offer alternatives to this service, given the consultation responses. Additional technical difficulties include the lack of availability of other purpose-built premises in the north-east Leeds area; and the costs involved in design and build (which would be considerably more that £800K at current prices).