IN8IT dynamic purchasing system for Hereford for disabled facilities grants
Case reference FOI2023/01939
Published 22 December 2023
Request
I wish to have the expenditure costs of instigating/commissioning the IN8IT dynamic purchasing system for Hereford for disabled facilities grants, and the proposed savings and benefits of this system.
I wish to see the financial savings to the tax payer for this.
I wish to know:
How much this has cost the council to date;
The ongoing costs;
Savings made against previous years spends.
Response
I wish to have the expenditure costs of instigating/commissioning the IN8IT dynamic purchasing system for Hereford for disabled facilities grants, and the proposed savings and benefits of this system.
A. There was no cost incurred to Herefordshire Council for the procurement of the dynamic purchasing system (DPS); Herefordshire Council joined a framework.
The savings are accumulated through preventing members of our community being admitted to hospital, being accommodated in residential settings or receiving long-term domiciliary care. We therefore do not hold this information.
The key benefits of the ARMI DPS in relation to the current model used by the council are:
a) Flexibility - new suppliers and products can be added at any time.
b) Opportunity to stimulate the market locally.
c) Reduces the risk of losing suppliers due to open nature of the ARMI DPS.
d) Reduces manual tasks involved for staff.
e) Access to unlimited group of prequalified providers.
f) Trustmark scheme operator - providing pre-qualification, vetting and inspections and ongoing monitoring of providers managed through the online platform.
I wish to see the financial savings to the tax payer for this.
A. Savings for using the DPS Scheme is based on costs saved by preventing someone from entering hospital, being accommodated in residential settings or receiving long-term domiciliary care. We therefore do not hold this information.
I wish to know:
How much this has cost the council to date;
A. The DPS Scheme Operator is paid a 1% management fee, net of VAT of the value of each contract entered into and completed under the DPS.
Cost to date for using the DPS Scheme Operator is £14,441.68
The ongoing costs;
A. Ongoing costs will be for the 1% management fee paid to the DPS Scheme Operator, net of VAT of the value of each contract entered into and completed under the DPS.
Based on the costs incurred to date, this equates to between £7,500 and £8,000 per annum.
Savings made against previous years spends.
A. We are unable to compare savings against previous years as we do not hold this information to quantify a value to the savings achieved through this scheme.
However, we have savings as working days gained, such as:
Grant Application to Grant Approved (April 2020 to Nov 2023); gain of 20 working days (from 51 days to 31 days)
Grant Approved to Grant Completion (April 2020 to Nov 2023); gain of 20 working days (from 108 to 88 days)
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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