Procurement of Grant Administration Services

As set out in PCD1190, MOPAC is bidding for additional funding from the Ministry of Justice and requires support from a Fund Manager in distributing and managing the funding over the next three years.

This is the most recent in a series of additional Government funding streams where MOPAC and other PCCs have been required to award and distribute funding on very compressed timescales, outside our normal commissioning processes. MOPAC has identified the need to secure ongoing grant administration services to support with distributing these ad-hoc Government funding grant programmes. Therefore, this decision is seeking authority to procure the services of a Fund Manager to support MOPAC over the next three years.

These services will be procured via a Crown Commercial Services framework. The contract will have a value of up to a maximum of £600,000 in fees over the life of the contract. Services will be commissioned from the Provider on a call-off basis over the life of the contract. This decision only commits MOPAC to paying the fees for disbursing the recent MoJ funding set out in PCD1190. Any future work would be subject to a further decision.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the publication of a Tender to appoint a provider on a contract with a maximum budget of £600,000 over three years from 2022/23 to 2024/25;

2. To delegate approval to award the contract to the Director of Commissioning and Partnerships in his capacity as Chair of the Contracts and Grants Oversight Group, subject to receiving assurance that the process has been conducted in compliance with procurement regulations; and

3. Approve the payment of fees under this contract of up to £250,000 over 2022/23 to 2024/25 for the grant administration services connected with disbursing the MoJ funding detailed in PCD1190.

1.1. In April 2022, Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched a national funding pot with a value of £19.45 million a year for the next three years. MOPAC will shortly be bidding into this pot on behalf of London services and will then need to act swiftly in distributing the funding that London is awarded by early Summer 2022. The authority to bid, accept, and transfer a portion of the awarded funding to a Fund Manager is set out in PCD1190.

1.2. MOPAC engaged the grant administration services of an existing contractor for previous rounds of national funding that have been announced on short notice over the course of the pandemic. This partnership enabled MOPAC to successful distribute and manage a large volume of grants across multiple grant programmes at a speed and efficiency that otherwise would not have been possible if MOPAC relied purely on its internal resources and systems.

1.3. This decision will enable MOPAC to procure the support needed to disburse and manage the grants for the recently announced round of MoJ funding as well as provide the basis on which MOPAC can engage the supplier in providing grant administration services for future grant programmes that might arise. The authority to carry out any future grant programmes and the payment of the associated fees of the supplier will be subject to further decisions.

1.4. The Provider will be expected to support MOPAC with some or all of the following activities in relation to current and future grant programmes and will be asked to quote for different tiers of service:
1.4.1. Design & development
1.4.2. Market engagement & promotion
1.4.3. Application & award services, including due diligence and payment
1.4.4. Ongoing management of the performance and finances of the grants

1.5 The Provider’s fees for the different combination of services will be calculated as a percentage of the funds they will be managing on MOPAC’s behalf.

1.6 The three-year contract will have a contract review/break clause at the mid-point.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. It would not be best practice to vary the duration and value of any of MOPAC’s current contracts with grant administration service providers because the multi-year nature of this recently announced MoJ funding would mean having to increase these contracts by more than 50% of their original contract value. For this reason, it is recommended that MOPAC go back out to the market to procure these services for the next three years at a good market rate.

2.2. Entering into a call-off contract arrangement with a grant administration service provider would enable MOPAC to engage the provider in supporting MOPAC with future grant programmes that may be needed over the course of the next four years. The authority to pursue any future grant programme and pay the associated grant administration fees under this arrangement would require a further decision to authorise.

2.3. MOPAC will work with its procurement partner Transport for London in utilising the Crown Commercial Services framework to procure these services. This will include obtaining approvals required by TfL’s governance arrangements and utilising the portal and terms and conditions specified by the procurement framework.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This decision requests approval to procure grant administration services over a three-year period, on a call-off arrangement. The maximum fees payable under this contract is £600,000 over the life of the contract.

3.2. This decision also seeks authority to engage the provider in the disbursal of funding covered by PCD 1190. The maximum fees payable to the provider for this service is £250,000. The fees payable for this service will be agreed as part of the procurement process. The budget for these fees will come from the £5m per annum in MOPAC's base budget that is ring-fenced for services and programmes tackling VAWG.

3.3. Engaging the provider in any further grant programmes and committing MOPAC to paying further fees under this contract will be require additional approvals in the form of a Decision.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. This decision is in line with the MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, in which paragraph 4.8 provides the DMPC with delegated authority to approve business cases for revenue expenditure of £500,00 and above.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. MOPAC will work with its procurement partner, Transport for London, in the procurement of these services from the relevant Crown Commercial Services framework.

5.2. The allocation of any grant funding by the grant administration service provider will be subject to separate decisions and be as the result of an open process.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. Any grant awards by the grant administration service provider will be informed by the Mayor’s public health approach to violence reduction and therefore part of MOPAC’s contribution to overall efforts led by the Violence Reduction Unit.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

MOPAC will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. MOPAC’s current and future requirements for grant administration services includes the need for any future grant administrator to understand the sector and support MOPAC in ambition of reaching and growing grassroots services, particularly ‘by and for’ service providers. Supporting MOPAC in this ambition will be a core requirement specified in the tender documentation.

8.2. Prospective bidders will need to demonstrate Social Value as part of the procurement process.

9. Background/supporting papers

N/A.