Elected Member Briefing Note 2026, No. 74
About this Briefing Note
Report by: Lisa Simpson, Strategic Lead - Legal and Governance
Date: 30 June 2026
Subject: Contract Delivery Plan 2026/2027 update
Responsible Officer: Lynzi Stewart, Corporate Procurement
Details
Purpose
To provide elected members with an overview on the updated Contract Delivery Plan for the Council for the 2026/2027 year.
Briefing Information
Background
The Council's Contract Delivery Plan is a statutory requirement and must be published by the Council on an annual basis. The 2026 to 2027 Contract Delivery Plan (PDF, 214 KB) is being published alongside this Elected Member Briefing Note.
Contract Delivery Plan for 2026 to 2027
This year's annual Contract Delivery Plan update shows that there are 231 planned contracts requiring support from the Corporate Procurement Team. However, this represents a snapshot in time from when the information is gathered, the actual requirements for support will vary during the year as not all requirements identified will proceed to contract award once they have been fully scoped.
There are also some high value/high profile contracts due for re-tendering in 2026/2027 which will need an increased level of support from the Corporate Procurement Team due to the complexities of these contracts and the potential risk to the Council if these are not progressed. These include:
- Planned and reactive maintenance contract for public building
- Residual waste management
- Digital category procurement
A Digital Category Strategy and action plan was developed in 2025/2026 as part of the Business Systems Rationalisation transformation and change project. The strategy outlined various key areas for improvement in digital procurement and management and was created and supported by a temporary Digital Category Manager post.
The focus of the post has been to work with the wider Corporate Procurement Team to improve compliance, ensuring that all contracts meet the requirements of the service and have suitable terms and conditions agreed.
Funding for this temporary post was due to end in March 2027, however, the post will become vacant from August 2026. Given the conclusion of the Business Systems Rationalisation project earlier this year and the short period until the funding runs out it is not intended to backfill this post.
We recognise that this will place additional pressure on the remaining Corporate Procurement Team, and on IT, who will have to carry out procurement activity themselves for low value contracts. As an indicator of demand there were 72 IT contracts awarded in 2025, increasing from 41 in 2024. Priority for Corporate Procurement support will continue to be given for high value/high risk contracts.
