To seek approval to enter into a new contractual arrangement with The Access Group for the provision of Mosaic (adults and children’s social care case management system), Synergy (education management system), Abacus (adult social care finance system) and Core+(youth service system including transition to a cloud-hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) , following expiry of the current contract's available extensions in September 2026.

That:

a)    the Cabinet Member Adults, Health and Wellbeing approves the procurement of a new five-year contract with The Access Group for the provision of Mosaic, Synergy, Abacus and Core+, via direct award under the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) 1095 framework (Lot 12),(Health and Social Care Software Systems for UK public sector organisations) at total cost of £3.4m, for the period 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2031;

b)    authority be delegated to the Corporate Director Community Wellbeing to finalise and execute the contract, including hosting arrangements and delivery protection provisions; and

c)     authority is delegated to the Corporate Director Community and Wellbeing to make all operational decisions relating to the implementation of the above recommendations.

1.     Allow the current contract to lapse without a successor arrangement. Rejected: these are business-critical statutory systems and lapse is not a viable option for service continuity.

2.     Conduct a full open market re-procurement exercise. Rejected: the timescale before contract expiry does not allow for a full competitive procurement due to the short-term nature of the original contract extension, and a compliant direct-award route already exists via the YPO 1095 framework (Lot 12), which has been used to derive the current pricing. Market testing undertaken confirms that the council is securing value for money through this supplier.

3.      Enter a three-year term instead of five years. Rejected: the three-year option carries a higher combined annualised cost (£686k/year) than the five-year option (£673k/year). The Access Group has also confirmed that a 3+2 structure (a three-year term with an option to extend by a further two years) is not available. In addition, Hoople's technical team have assessed that, given the complexity and interconnected nature of the systems involved, completing a further full procurement and migration exercise within three years is likely to incur significant additional spend on external resources — and even then would be unlikely to succeed. The five-year term is assessed as offering better long-term value and materially lower delivery risk.

4.     Seek a further short-term bridging extension of the current contract. Rejected: legal advice obtained in April 2026 confirmed that all extensions available under the current contract are exhausted.