Archived decisions

Contact: Kevin Ings, ext 6986 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The Local Transport Plan Capital Programme has an allocation for community transport of £175,000 in 2007/08. At his Decision Day on 22 January 2008 the Executive Member for Environment approved a report which allocated payments of £10,500 to assist with the purchase of replacement mopeds at the two Wheels to Work schemes which operate in the county. This leaves a balance of £164,500 and this report proposes how the remaining allocation should be used to support the purchase of new or replacement vehicles at community transport and dial-a-ride schemes in Hampshire. This support will ensure that existing community transport services continue to operate and that new services can be developed. This will contribute towards maximising well-being in Hampshire.

1.2 A previous report to the Executive Member for Environment outlined the changes which needed to be made to the financial arrangements for supporting community transport schemes in the future in order to ensure that the County Council meets procurement regulations and the Council's Standing Orders. These changes are currently being implemented and this report identifies where further decisions are required to assist this process.

2. Recommendations

2.1 That a grant of £25,228 be awarded to Test Valley Community Services for the purchase of a small wheelchair accessible vehicle.

2.2 That a grant of £63,619 be awarded to Yelabus for the purchase of an accessible minibus.

2.3 That a grant of £57,000 be awarded to Gosport Voluntary Action for the purchase of an accessible minibus.

2.4 That single tender negotiations take place with the current operators of the Wheels to Work schemes identified in paragraph 5.2 of the report and that temporary single tender contracts be awarded for the period 1 April 2008 to 30 September 2008.

2.5 That the Bishops Waltham Minibus Group and the Andover Women's Royal Voluntary Service be invited to submit grant applications for the dial a ride schemes they operate instead of being awarded a single tender contract.

2.6 That an additional payment of £9,653 be made to Fareham Community Action to contribute towards the cost of replacing a Fareham Dial-A-Ride vehicle.

2.7 That an additional payment of £9,000 be made to Fareham Community Action to contribute towards the cost of replacing a Gosport Dial-A-Ride vehicle.

2.8 That the overall approach to tendering and the evaluation process, as set out in paragraphs 5.4-5.9 of the report, be agreed in principle and that the Director of the Environment be given delegated authority to refine the detail before tenders are issued.

2.9 That single tender negotiations take place with the current MiDAS Training Agents identified in paragraph 5.10 of the report and that single tender contracts be awarded for the period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009, prior to a competitive tendering process being undertaken.

3. Background

3.1 A review of community transport schemes in Hampshire was undertaken in 1999. One particular issue identified was that of future vehicle funding arrangements. If schemes are to continue to offer accessible vehicles and transport at affordable rates, thus enhancing social inclusion, there is a need to provide assistance to meet increasing capital costs. These vehicles generally offer older, disabled and younger people the opportunity to access a range of services and facilities within their local community.

3.2 The need to develop the community transport sector was identified in both the Passenger Transport Group and cross-cutting transport Best Value Review action plans. Previous work also has recommended a framework for the future development and funding of community transport in Hampshire. This involved developing a needs assessment which has determined what the baseline level of community transport provision should be in each district of Hampshire, together with the required levels of resources and funding.

3.3 The County Council has been making funding available through the Local Transport Plan (LTP) capital programme to support and develop community transport services which support the LTP objectives of accessibility and social inclusion. Services provided by community transport schemes include group hire, dial-a-ride, wheels to work schemes and shopping trip services for older and disabled people. These services can make a key contribution towards enhancing accessibility and reducing isolation, particularly in rural areas, for those people or families who do not have access to their own transport. Often these services can be provided in areas and at times when it may not be feasible or cost-effective to provide a conventional bus service, thus helping to sustain present travel opportunities whilst making use of alternative approaches.

3.4 In addition many of these alternative approaches will be provided with smaller vehicles, thus reducing vehicle impact on the environment. The demand-responsive nature of some services, particularly where these provide a door-to-door transport service, could also offer some reassurance to those people who may have concerns about personal safety on conventional public transport. Supporting the opportunities for more group transport movements may also potentially lead to lower car usage.

4. Vehicle Grants and Payments

4.1 The allocation of grants to community transport schemes is being based on the following guiding principles:

(i) Previous work which has determined what the baseline level of community transport provision should be in each area. This, among other things, proposes the number of vehicles that should be available in each district council area. In some cases this means that grants will be used to introduce new vehicles to meet these levels, whilst in other cases they will be used to replace current vehicles in order to ensure the sustainability of existing community transport schemes.

(ii) Where existing vehicles are replaced the current age/mileage profile and condition of the vehicle is assessed.

(iii) The opportunities to develop the community transport sector as a whole.

(iv) As many schemes as possible should benefit, particularly those which have received little support through previous replacement programmes.

(v) Generally schemes would receive up to 75% of the costs of replacing existing mini-buses. Where new vehicles are being provided to extend vehicle fleets then these will be funded at full cost.

4.2 The report to the Executive Member for Environment on 22 January proposed that a sum should be made available to provide grants for vehicle purchase which would support and develop the work of existing community transport schemes. The availability of this grant money has been advertised on the County Council's website and applications have been sought from voluntary and community organisations who can meet the following criteria:

(i) be an existing voluntary or community organisation which already provides a transport service to the wider community;

(ii) be already operating vehicles which provide a service for the wider community rather than for a specific activity or group;

(iii) be able to provide evidence of the need for a new or replacement vehicle;

(iv) be able to demonstrate that the use of the new or replacement vehicle will:

(a) support the Local Transport Plan objectives of improving accessibility and social inclusion

(b) foster the development of voluntary and community organisations in their area of operation and improve well-being

(c) support the provision and development of community transport activities in Hampshire;

(v) be in need of financial support for a new or replacement vehicle; and

(vi) be able to provide evidence of vehicle purchase costs and any other sources of funding towards the vehicle.

4.3 Grant applications have been received from three organisations and assessed using the above criteria and the following grants are now proposed subject to the applicants meeting all of the above requirements.

(i) Test Valley Community Services - £25,228

This grant would enable Test Valley Community Services to purchase a small accessible wheelchair vehicle. This would be used to meet individual journey requests in the north of Test Valley. A similar vehicle is operated by the scheme and available for journeys in the southern part of the district. The vehicle would be driven by volunteer drivers and the operating costs largely covered from the use of the vehicle. This would increase the vehicle fleet operated by Test Valley Community Services and therefore the grant will cover the full costs of purchasing this vehicle.

(ii) Yelabus - £63,619

At his decision day on 22 January the Executive Member approved a 12-month revenue grant to Yelabus to provide the organisation with sufficient time to revise the way in which the scheme is financed in the future. The scheme has previously been using its vehicle replacement reserves to fund the Yelabus operation. Assisting the scheme by providing the replacement costs for an existing vehicle will help to reduce vehicle running costs in the short term and help to support moves to secure a more sustainable service in the future. Given the current position the full costs of replacing the vehicle are proposed. This grant will be subject to the agreement of Yelabus to only use any remaining vehicle replacement reserves for future minibus purchase.

(iii) Gosport Voluntary Action £57,000

Work has been ongoing with Gosport Voluntary Action to develop a district-wide community transport scheme in Gosport for use by local community groups and organisations. The scheme currently operates six vehicles, four of which were inherited from the Gosport Disability Trust which closed last year. Two of these vehicles recently failed their MOTs and were deemed to be beyond economic repair, although one of these vehicles has since been repaired and reintroduced into service.

Gosport Voluntary Action has submitted a grant application to replace the vehicle which was based at Lee-on-the-Solent. This vehicle will be used to cover existing commitments and to develop retail and leisure journeys predominately in the Lee-on-the-Solent and Rowner areas of Gosport. These trips, which will be predominately provided using volunteers, will help to complement journey opportunities offered by the one vehicle Gosport dial-a-ride service which covers the whole of the borough.

The cost of the replacement vehicle will be approximately £62,000 and two grants totalling £5,000 have already been pledged by local County Council Members towards this cost. Given the fact that these ageing vehicles have been inherited by the scheme it is proposed that the remaining sum should be covered by a vehicle grant. The County Council has agreed to assist the scheme in developing these new journey opportunities.

4.4 The operating cost of these vehicles once purchased will be covered by the community transport schemes themselves. The costs will be recovered through hire charges to organisations or individuals using the vehicles and income from contracts for providing specific services.

4.5 Conditions will be applied to these grants. This will ensure that vehicles comply with all necessary legal and safety requirements and are used in a manner which is compatible with the overall objectives set out in the Community Transport Strategy. The conditions will also cover those situations where either the organisation is disbanded or the vehicle is disposed of and not replaced.

4.6 After taking into account the above vehicle grant allocations a sum of £18,653 remains and it is proposed that this be used to contribute towards the replacement of Dial-A-Ride vehicles at Fareham and Gosport.

4.7 Under the current funding arrangements, dial-a-ride schemes receive an element of funding for vehicle depreciation which they set aside in a replacement fund. By making an additional contribution towards replacing in 2007/08 this would release money from their replacement funds in 2008/09 to support the running costs of the respective schemes. The following payments are proposed to schemes:

(i) Fareham Community Action (Fareham Dial-A-Ride) - £9,653; and

(ii) Fareham Community Action (Gosport Dial-A-Ride) - £9,000.

5. Community Transport Contracts

5.1 A report to the Executive Member for Environment on 9 October 2007 outlined the changes which needed to be made to the financial arrangements for supporting community transport schemes in the future in order to ensure that the County Council meets procurement regulations and the Council's Standing Orders. These changes are currently being implemented and this report identifies the following areas where further decisions are required to assist this process. In addition to this authority is also sought to award a short term single tender contract in connection with the County Council's minibus driver awareness scheme (MiDAS).

Wheels to Work

5.2 The two existing Wheels to Work schemes in Hampshire are currently in the process of being competitively tendered. These schemes are currently supported through service agreements which expire on 31 March 2008. Interim arrangements therefore need to be put in place, until a contract is awarded for a combined service following the tender process. A six- month single tender contract is proposed for both Community First New Forest and Test Valley Community Services. These contracts will have a one month notice clause so that the new contract can commence as soon as is practically possible after the tender process is completed.

Smaller Schemes

5.3 At the above meeting it was decided that single tender contracts should be awarded to the Andover Women's Royal Voluntary Service and the Bishop's Waltham Minibus Group for the operation of small scale dial-a-ride schemes. Having considered the matter further it would now seem that grants in these cases would be more appropriate because the County Council is not specifying the service provided, it is only providing financial assistance to meet the revenue shortfall. Therefore, it is proposed that these organisations be invited to submit grant applications for 2008/09. If in the future either of these schemes were expanded under the Council's direction then the most appropriate form of support may need to be revisited.

Tendering Process and Evaluation

5.4 Prior to the tenders being issued for the various community transport services a number of decisions need to be made regarding price and quality. Approval is sought for the overall approach outlined below in order to allow officers to proceed with refining the details of the process in preparation for the issuing of tenders.

5.5 A restricted tendering process will be used to ensure that organisations on the tender list have relevant experience, good references and are financially sound. The conditions of contract and service specifications will set clear quality standards for the services being tendered to ensure that the quality of service to users remains high.

5.6 To manage tender prices for Dial-A-Ride, Call and Go and Basingstoke Community Transport tenderers will be required to submit bids for two options: fixed specification (the current level of service) and fixed price (the available budget). In addition they may also submit alternative bids. Any bid in excess of the available budget will be rejected. Further detail on the tendering process is set out in the attached appendix.

5.7 Bids will be evaluated against price/volume (measured as unit cost for one hour of service operation) and quality. Quality will include any added value the tenderer can offer at no extra cost. Tenderers will need to submit a method statement which will be used to assess the extent to which they can meet or exceed the quality standards set out in the contract. As tender prices are in effect capped and the quality of service to users is important the proposed balance between price/volume:quality is 60:40. Further detail on the evaluation process is set out in the attached appendix.

5.8 For the Wheels to Work moped scheme there will be certain differences in approach to provide an incentive to the operator to maximise the number of mopeds on loan to young people. These are set out in the appendix but essentially the overall approach is similar, using a restricted tendering procedure and a 60:40 price/quality balance.

5.9 The tendering process has been given careful consideration and is designed to maintain the quality of service to users whilst encouraging tenderers to submit realistic bids within the available budget.

MiDAS Training Agents

5.10 MiDAS provides assessment and training for minibus drivers in schools, colleges, voluntary organisations and local authorities in Hampshire. The scheme relies on two training agents who in turn train the assessor/trainers based in individual organisations who then assess and train their own minibus drivers. The current contracts with these training agents expire on 31 March 2008. To allow a full tendering process in accordance with procurement regulations to be undertaken it is proposed that short term single tender contracts be issued to the existing providers (Minibus Safety Consultants and ReadiBus) for a 12-month period ending 31 March 2009.

6. Impact Assessments

6.1 The vehicles operated by community transport schemes are generally available to all bona fide voluntary and community groups in their area of operation. Where services are available to individuals they are often targeted at members of the community who are disadvantaged in some way.

7. Conclusion

7.1 This report sets out the arrangements for allocating the remaining community transport allocation in the LTP capital Programme. This will support the purchase of new or replacement minibuses at community transport schemes in Hampshire. This support will ensure that existing community transport services continue to operate and that new services can be developed. The report also sets out further actions to support the process of ensuring that the County Council meets the necessary procurement regulations whilst supporting community transport schemes in the future.

1563Rpt/KI

APPENDIX

THE TENDERING AND EVALUATION PROCESS FOR COMMUNITY TRANSPORT CONTRACTS

1. Quality will be an integral part of the whole tendering process, to ensure that the County Council obtains the right quality of bidder on the tender list and that the contract documentation specifies the service in such a way as to maintain the current high quality of services to users. This will be achieved through:

(i) A restricted tender process using a Pre Qualification Questionnaire to select the tender list. Prospective bidders will need to have relevant experience, good references and be financially sound. This should prevent poor quality operators from getting on the tender list.

(ii) Conditions of Contract and Service Specifications that set clear quality standards for the service.

(iii) User consultation through focus groups to provide a better understanding of the aspects of service quality most important to them and which need to be incorporated into both of the above.

Since quality is being built into the process, the price:quality ratio will therefore be weighted more in favour of price.

Managing Price

2. The following options will be included in the tenders:

(i) Fixed Specification - this will mean that prices can be compared directly against what is currently paid for that level of service so the impact of tendering on prices can be clearly seen. It will also clearly show whether any bidder can provide the service for less than the current cost. However, as the budget is finite and will be declared in the tenders, all Fixed Specification tenders in excess of the declared budget will be rejected.

(ii) Fixed Price - under this option all bids will be within the available budget, should all the Fixed Specification bids be higher than this. However, there is the possibility that service levels could be lower than at present.

(iii) Alternative Tenders - bidders will also be encouraged to submit alternative tenders (within the available budget) where they can vary the service specification, offering different patterns of service for example. This will encourage innovative bids that make better use of existing resources, ie offer cost savings or efficiency gains. Any bids in excess of the available budget will be rejected, as with the Fixed Specification tenders.

3. Each of the above options can be assessed against the other by comparing the price per hour of operational service (£ per hour that a Dial a Ride bus is operating in service). The approach outlined above will be used for the tenders for Dial a Ride and Call & Go.

Measuring Quality and Added Value - The Method Statement

4. Tenderers will be required to submit a Method Statement with their tenders. This will provide evidence to enable an assessment of:

(i) The ability of the Tenderer to operate the Contract in accordance with the Service Specification and Conditions of Contract, ie how they will deliver the service and to what extent they can meet or exceed the quality standards.

(ii) Any Added Value they can provide as part of the Contract at no additional cost.

5. The Method Statement will include a number of topics, including the pattern of service offered, safety and risk management, customer focus, managing the booking and scheduling function, managing an effective service, innovation and environmental issues and added value. It will be used to identify those operators who may have passed the PQQ stage but who cannot satisfactorily demonstrate that they can operate a service to the standards required.

The Balance between Price and Quality - Discussion

6. Following consultation with the district councils it is proposed that a balance between price and quality of 60:40 should be adopted. There could be risks in this approach if high quality bids in excess of the available budget were being considered, but since those fixed specification bids in excess of the budget will already have been rejected, all bids being evaluated will be within budget. It is therefore expected that there will be a small number of tenders to be evaluated that are likely to be grouped closely on price and therefore it is logical to place greater emphasis on quality in making the decision on the award of contracts. It is therefore recommended that a 60:40 price:quality balance be adopted.

Wheels to Work Moped Scheme

7. The approach here is different as the intention is to ensure that the contractor has clear incentives to have the mopeds used by young people as much as possible. The basis for pricing takes this into account. Tenderers will need to submit separate prices for the two separate elements of the tender price:

(i) An infrastructure price - essentially the fixed costs of running the Wheels to Work (W2W) scheme - office costs, salary of employing a coordinator, etc.

(ii) An `active moped' price (per week) - the price the contractor gets paid when a moped is in use - ie placed with a young person. This will cover the operating costs of the mopeds.

8. There is a danger that bidders could put in exceptionally low bids per active moped and push up their infrastructure prices, essentially to maximise their income regardless, in case of low moped utilisation. To overcome this the infrastructure price will be capped - ie there will be a stated maximum for the infrastructure price (50% of the available budget) and any bids in excess of this will be rejected as non-compliant. There would not be a cap on the active moped price.

9. Having selected the preferred tenderer the available budget will then define the number of mopeds that can be operated - ie there may have to be fewer mopeds if the bids are higher than expected. It is much easier to scale down W2W in this way than it is for Dial a Ride and Call & Go.

10. The balance between price and quality will be 60:40 in favour of price, the same as for the other tendered contracts.

Summary

11. The tendering process has been given careful consideration. Together with decisions already made following consultation to reduce risks to contractors (and therefore discourage higher price to cover risks), the proposed tender process should ensure that:

(i) Tenderers understand the budget constraints and are clearly directed to submit realistic bids that are within budget.

(ii) Tenderers are encouraged to submit alternative tenders, making better use of resources and delivering cost savings or efficiency gains.

(iii) Quality plays an important part in the valuation process. This fits well with the consultation responses for operators, districts and dial a ride users.

(iv) Safety and risk management are also given due importance.

12. The tendering process has been given thorough consideration, is robust and designed to optimise the chances of achieving good outcomes, together with safe, good quality services within budget.