DD1459 City Skills Fund - final stage of procurement

1.1. The London Enterprise Panel’s Skills and Employment Working Group wishes to procure Labour Insights, which is a software licence providing access to quarterly data feeds on job vacancies. The data produced through use of the software will assist skills stakeholders and providers across the region in identifying skills needs through published vacancy data.

1.2 Procurement of the licence is recommended in research funded through Phase 3 of the City Skills Fund (CSF) and will bring to a conclusion the activities delivered throughout the lifetime of the CSF programme.

1.3 DD1327, which covers Phase 3 of the CSF programme, approves funds to pay for the licence, as part of the Skills Inquiry budget which is £100,000. Funding for Phase 3 forms part of the £500,000 City Skills Fund, matched with up to £500,000 of ESF Technical Assistance. DD1327 stipulated that these funds should be net nil cost to the GLA and that the project is expected to continue to 31st July 2015.

1.4 Negotiations with potential suppliers of the software have resulted in delays to the procurement of the licence.

1.5 An exemption from the GLA’s Contract and Funding Code is required and a Single Source Justification (see appendix A) has been completed for the procurement of the software licence - sold in the UK to the public sector via Burning Glass reseller Active Informatics - at a cost of £75,000 for twelve months’ usage on the basis that there is a complete absence of competition in the market and Burning Glass are the only suppliers who hold the necessary licences to provide the required information.

1.6 Burning Glass technology has sourced London (and UK) job postings daily from thousands of sites using AI ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’ to crawl the web to look for jobs. Burning Glass are uniquely placed to provide timely data on job postings that includes information on: standardised industry (SIC) codes, standardised occupation (SOC) codes, location at Local Authority level, salary, qualification requirements, contract-type and job-type. A rival company providing labour market information, EMSI, has since developed a job postings analytical tool for the US market and are in the early stages of seeking to develop a tool to rival Labour Insight. This will not however be ready for at least the next 12-24 months due to the complexity of not only accessing the data, but also in cleaning, de-duplicating and linking this to standard industry and occupational classifications. Conversations with EMSI confirmed that Burning Glass is currently the sole provider of technology to deliver detailed data based on online job postings in the UK.

1.7 In summer 2015 colleagues in the European Programme Management Unit advised that costs associated with the software would operate beyond the life of the ESF Technical Assistance - during which claims could be made - this has resulted in a shortfall of available CSF matched funds.

1.8 Further delays were experienced as officers explored alternative sources of funding both externally and within the GLA.

1.9 As this procurement supports LEP skills and employment priorities and remains a key recommendation of CSF funded research, programme funds within the Development, Environment and Enterprise (DEE) directorate of the GLA have been identified.

1.10 The cost to the DEE programme funds must not exceed £29,000.

2.1 The GLA wishes to purchase Labour Insights, which is software providing access to quarterly data feeds on job vacancies for London produced by Burning Glass Technologies. A Single Source Justification is being sought because no public or other commercial sources of data are available on the job postings in London that includes detailed information on occupations, sectors, skills.

2.2 The technology in the UK is sold to the public sector via Burning Glass reseller Active Informatics. A rival company providing labour market information, EMSI, has since developed a job postings analytical tool for the US market and are in the early stages of seeking to develop a tool to rival Labour Insight. This will not however be ready for at least the next 12-24 months due to the complexity of not only accessing the data, but also in cleaning, de-duplicating and linking this to standard industry and occupational classifications.

2.3 Conversations between GLA Economics officers and EMSI confirmed that Burning Glass is currently the sole provider of technology to deliver detailed data based on online job postings in the UK.

2.4 The data produced through use of the software will assist skills stakeholders and providers across the region in identifying skills needs through published vacancy data.

2.5 It will enable access to timely data on job postings for vacancies available in London, which can be broken down by a number of variables such as: qualifications/skills, occupation, sector, job-type, source of advert, pay and low-level geography.

3.1 Officers confirm that the procurement and commissioning of the activities described above will conform with requirements made under the public sector equality duty, and that any increased knowledge of skills and employability needs of particular learner groups will be used to inform future specifications for work.

4.1 The procurement supports the LEP’s skills and employment priorities and remains a key recommendation of CSF funded research.

4.2 It also supports the Jobs and Growth Priorities set out in the LEP’s Jobs and Growth Plan, the Local Growth Deal for London and the FE Capital Investment Fund prospectus.

4.3 The data produced through use of the software will assist skills stakeholders and providers across the region in identifying skills needs through published vacancy data.

4.4 The data will be made available publically through the London Data Store¸ which is the Mayor’s free and open data-sharing portal where anyone can access data relating to the capital.

5.1 Approval is requested for the extension of the project end date and the expenditure for the purchase of Labour Insight software licence. The expenditure is to be funded through the balance of City Skills Funding of £46,000 (as approved by DD1327), and an additional £29,000 from the 2015/16 DEE Minor Programme Budget. The net cost to the GLA is £29,000.

6.1 The report above indicates that:
6.1.1 the decisions requested of the Director relate to expenditure for the commissioning of supplies and services which fall within the Authority’s statutory powers to do things facilitative of and conducive to the discharge of its general functions; and

6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people (further details on equalities are set out in section 3 above) and to the duty under section 149 of the 2010 Act to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not ;

• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

• consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 Section 4.1 of the Authority’s Contracts and Funding Code (“Code”) requires that at competitive tenders be sought for supplies with values of the proposed contract value or that those supplies be “called off” from a framework accessible to the Authority. Section 5 of the Code provides however, that exemptions from that requirement maybe approved on a number of specified grounds including where there is a complete absence of competition for the supply in question. Officers have indicated at section 1.5 and 1.6 of this report that this is the case here, as Burning Glass technology are the only suppliers in the market who are capable of providing the software and required information. The director may therefore, approve the proposed exemption and award of contract if satisfied with the content of this report.

6.3 Officers should ensure that appropriate documentation is put in place and executed by the Authority and the supplier before the commencement of the services.