Agenda and draft minutes

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The Chair announced to those present that the meeting would be live streamed.

The Committee noted the evacuation and housekeeping procedure.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting held on 11 May 2026

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on 11 May be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To consider and agree the draft final report.

Consideration was given to the draft final report and recommendations for the Scrutiny Review of Post-16 Education. The aim of the review was to consider the current position, challenges and proposed solutions to post-16 provision in Stockton-on-Tees, to assist in increasing attraction and retention and lead to better outcomes for young people.

The review found that there was a broad and high-quality offer in the borough, and good collaborative work taking place to strengthen engagement, alignment with local labour market needs, and outcomes for young people. The recommendations built on this strong foundation to improve transition arrangements, systems to flag declining attendance and engagement, early awareness and guidance for industries and career pathways, communication, and transport to different providers within the borough.

It was noted that the Cabinet member, who had been invited to attend the meeting as was customary but unable to attend, had passed her thanks to the Committee for their hard work and looked forward to receiving the report at Cabinet.

The link officer also thanked the Committee for their work on the review, expressing how the recommendations would support the work of the Council and Post-16 Partnership to drive outcomes for young people further forward.

The Chair thanked the Committee, Officers, and leads from the Post-16 Partnership that had provided evidence for their contributions to the review.

AGREED that the final report be approved for submission to Cabinet.

To receive a background presentation from the link officer and consider and agree the draft scope and project plan

A background presentation was received for the Scrutiny Review of Procurement and Tendering Processes from the review’s link officer, Assistant Director for Procurement and Governance, which included:

• The UK public sector spent £434billion on procurement in 2024/25, which had a considerable impact on the UK’s economy both at a national and a local level. Stockton Borough Council spent £237million through procurement and contracts. Unlike in the private sector, procurement in the public sector was regulated due to being public money and therefore transparency was needed on how it was spent. Legislation such as the Procurement Act 2023 and the previous Public Contract Regulations 2015 detailed how procurement should take place e.g. advertising contract opportunities, the process of procuring, and how the market was informed who the contract was awarded to.  There should be an equality of opportunity for businesses to apply for contracts and they should be treated fairly and equally when they do apply.
• The Councils contract procedure rules set out the way it undertook procurement and these were included in the constitution. They were proportionate to the level of expenditure, with processes for low cost items being relatively simple and more robust processes for contracts, good or services that were higher value.
• Any expenditure of £500,000 or above had to be agreed by Cabinet, and an annual procurement report was presented to Cabinet identifying contracts for the following year that were valued over that amount for approval. Ad hoc reports were also taken to Cabinet throughout the year for approval when new contracts were identified. The only other Member involvement in procurement was oversight via Audit Committee and through scrutiny reviews.
• Xentrall processed 29,000 invoices in 2024/25 which demonstrated the scale and breadth of goods, services and works that was procured. These were categorised by master-category and sub-category to enable understanding and analysis for value for money. A breakdown of the procurement spend in 2024/25 showed that the majority was spent on Health and Social Care (over £130million). This category included contracts related to residential care and domiciliary care amongst other services. Buildings were the second highest spend with £40million, and this included extensions to schools, cost of running admin buildings, insurance, building costs of running libraries, and building costs associated with schools and community centres the Council provided services to.
• Stockton-on-Tees joint-contracted for some services sub-regionally with other Tees Valley local authorities and were also members of the North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) which arranged contracts regionally and bulk buy on the Councils behalf.  The Council also sometimes utilised national contracts set up by central government and the NHS. NEPO also undertook other policy and practice work such as setting up standard terms and conditions of contracts which made the process of bidding for contracts from different councils easier for businesses.
• Approximately 61% of external spend was on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). There was also significant Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSE) expenditure.
• There was a Social Value Policy which applied for most, but not all  ...  view the full minutes text for item PEO/19/26

Consideration was given to the Committee’s work programme. It was noted that the dates for the Scrutiny Review of Procurement and Tendering Processes would be added to the programme.

AGREED the work programme be updated.