A large London Council recruited resources through a managed vendor arrangement with their incumbent supplier. Although the arrangement serviced the more administrative and clerical positions well, The Corporate Services and Digital and Change teams increasingly struggled to recruit specialist interim resource with the appropriate skill sets and within a timely manner.
In addition to the resourcing issues faced by the departments, the Council were also at risk of losing business-critical resource due to the challenges presented by the application of the intermediaries legislation (IR35). The challenges presented by both the intermediaries’ legislation and the current cumbersome and not fit-for-purpose resource service, meant that the Council needed to identify an alternative, more flexible solution to engage specialist resource outside of their current managed vendor.
Before the teams could engage with an alternative service provider, the Councils Senior Leadership Team required a business case to be presented. As a result, the Department Director sat down with the BetterGov team in a whiteboard meeting in order to analyse the Authority’s needs and jointly create a robust business case, showcasing benefits and risks.
The service proposal created was included in the business case, which consisted of details outlining the IR35 friendly engagement model through the use of a blended service model service (outcome-based) contracts via an OJEU approved Crown Commercial Services framework, including resourcing support for fixed-term roles. The proposal allowed the Council to procure services through an approved framework, under an overarching agreement with flexible resource utilisation and swift access to the specialist staff.
The business case was approved and shortly after and the London Council now had a trusted Delivery Partner providing a flexible and scalable solution, enabling rapid access to specialist resources through the newly created engagement model, built around the specific needs of the Corporate Services and Digital and Change teams.