Search decisions

On the 4th of March 2025, the council received confirmation of £376,200 funding from GMCA, enabling the ABEN Service to extend its reach until the 31st of March 2026, encompassing an additional four bed spaces.
The most recent contract in place for the provision of the ABEN Service expired on 31st of March 2025, and there was insufficient time after the GMCA grant notification to seek approval to modify the term of the contract and implement any agreed variations prior to the contract’s expiry.

RESOLVED - That:
1.
(recommended)
Part A: approve an exemption in respect of rule 4 of the Contract Procurement Rules by utilising rule 21 of the CPRs, and
Part B: Subject to approval of the recommendation under Part A of Option
1, that the Delegated Officer for Part B approves:
(a) the direct award of and enter into a new contract with DePaul UK for the provision of ABEN Service from 1st of April 2025 to 31st March 2026 at a value of £245,000 (this includes a £15,000 uplift for National Insurance and Real Living Wage increases).
(b) an underlease of the building at 10 Sharples Hall Street and any other necessary units to DePaul UK from 31st of March 2025 to 28th of February 2026, aligning with the council head lease's expiration on 5th of April 2026.
(c) the augmentation of the scope of the recently expired contract by incorporating four more bed spaces into the specification for the proposed contract, elevating the total ABEN spaces to 33. This expansion demonstrates the commitment to supporting the Councils commitment to ending rough sleeping and enhancing accommodation options for those in need.

Reason for decision
In order to support implementation of the new Fair Share policy, as well as improve operational efficiency within Housing Options, it is necessary to purchase a bolt-on module for the Locata IT system. This can be done via a contract modification, so as to keep the arrangements with Locata under a single agreement. As such Commercial Procurement Unit requests approval to:
a) modify the existing G Cloud Call-Off Contract; and
b) request an exemption to the Councils Contract Procedure Rule’s as this modification is over 10%

RESOLVED - That: the bolt-on module is purchased, including the purchase of a data warehouse to aid in reporting

To allocate grant funding of £95,000 from the Health and Social Care Integration Pooled Fund (Reserve) to Northern Roots (Oldham) Limited to support the Nature Health project for one year (1st April 2025 – 31st March 2025) and to enter into a fit for purpose Grant Agreement for the funding.

RESOLVED - That:
To allocate grant funding for one year (25/26) to Northern Roots (Oldham) Limited as a contribution to the running costs of the Nature Health project and to enter into a fit for purpose Grant Agreement for the grant funding.

To allocate grant funding from the Priority Programme Fund (PPF) to community grants for one year (1st April 2025 – 31st March 2026).

RESOLVED - That: To allocate grant funding for one year (25/26) to Greenacres Community Association and to Oldham Credit Union for core costs. For The Credit Union this will provide a contribution to their core funding supporting them to continue to provide services to residents. For the Greenacres Community Association, it will support them to draw in the external grant funding from the Community Ownership Fund (£300k) by maintaining the match funding for one year. To allocated grant funding from the Asylum Dispersal Grant to Werneth & Freehold Community Development Project for their work supporting residents of Hotel 24/7.

To help address the backlog of householder planning applications in the Planning Service caused by temporary vacancies / absences in the Service.

RESOLVED - That: an existing Call-Off Contract with Capita Property & Infrastructure Limited, which was made under the Crown Commercial Service Framework Agreement for Estate Management Services, for the processing of householder planning applications, is extended for a period of up to six months and modified to raise the existing cap for the total number of such applications processed by Capita from 100 to 200.