Community Justice Learning (formerly Probation Qualification)

This notice relates to a further 12 month extension to the Lots 3& 4 The Sheffield Hallam Contract, with a new contract expiry date of 7 April 2023.

The Authority considers the modifications of the Contract without prior publication of a Contract Notice is permitted by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR) and Directive 2014/24/EU. The Contract was modified in accordance with regulation 72(1)(b)/article 72(1)(b) on 6th November 2020 and accordingly does not in the Authority's view amount to the award of a new contract and/or an unlawful substantial change. The modification does not alter the overall nature of the Contract. The estimated price increase does not exceed 50 % of the estimated value of the original Contract (as against the notional contract values of each Contract identified at section V.2.4.

The further 12 month extension is necessary for the provision of additional services, namely for the completion of cohorts 9 and 10, which each commence during the original permitted contract term but which will not complete before the original expiry date of April 2022, as follows:

Cohort 9 (21 month course): January 2021 commencement and October 2022 completion

Cohort 10 (15 month course): July 2021 commencement and October 2022 completion

Cohort 10 (21 month course: July 2021 commencement and April 2023 completion

A change of contractor part way through a cohort cannot be made for economic and technical reasons and would cause significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs for the Contracting Authority.

The significant inconvenience and substantial duplication of costs is driven by:

• Inconvenience to learners during their professional studies – a change in learning provider midway through a course could compromise their ability to qualify on time and achieve the pay rise associated with qualification
• The need to recognise and accredit prior learning if learners move between providers – while there is nationally required content, the individual courses that learners complete are accredited by their institutions. Therefore the transfer of credits and recognition of prior learning would see significant duplication of costs from any new provider
• Inconvenience to the MoJ – at a time of significant reform of the probation system, to transfer learners between providers is likely to see a significantly increased workload for National Probation Service staff who supervise Probation Officers vocational training.

The 12 month extension to the Contract will enable current learner cohorts 9 and 10 to complete the CJL qualification with the Contractor.

The MoJ published a Contract Notice on the 4th January 2021 on Find a Tender Service (publication reference: 2021/S 000-000066) for the delivery of the CJL qualification from April 2023.The overlap in contractual terms is so that learners can start and finish their learning with a single provider. This extension provides for the completion of learners in cohorts that start in or before July 2021.