4.9 There can be no formula for calculating the size of the internal team required during the operational period. Previous surveys of operational projects carried out identified significant variations in the amount of resource allocated to contract management and monitoring. This ranged from a proportion of the time of a single person to a large, dedicated team. What is important is that the Contract Manager can access the relevant skills when they are needed, so for example, the contract team doesn't need an insurance specialist, but it will need access to one every 2 years or so.
4.10 The Authority will need to consider:
• where in the organisation the contract management function will be placed. Some Authorities may wish to keep this within the department which acted as Project Sponsor and, in such cases, the contact manager will be able to benefit from the widespread knowledge of the project in that department; others may wish to keep the function within a central corporate contracts monitoring department where there may be good practice and an opportunity to pursue a career in contract management inside or outside PPP/NPD projects. In order to attract good candidates for the contract manager post, the Authority should consider the long term career opportunities it is able to offer;
• whether there are certain times during the contract life that more resources will be required, for example:
o during the construction phase;
o during the first eighteen months of the operational phase in order to iron out any teething problems and deal with unresolved issues from the construction phase such as snagging and ensure that the project is in a steady state;
o prior to benchmarking and market testing;
o when a major Authority change is implemented.
• the appropriate level, role and availability of support staff;
• the extent and circumstances which may require specialist advice from internal departments or advisors: for example, a local Authority project may need to buy in Mechanical and Electrical (M and E) advice from its building section during the construction phase or Information Technology advice;
• the effect on users of the PPP/NPD facilities and services, what resources will be needed to prepare users for their role and whether there are any costs resulting from the contractual obligations. For example, in a schools project, the contract monitoring function will impact on school staffing resources, which will need to be budgeted for.
4.11 Authorities should undertake a trial run of the payment mechanism and performance monitoring system during the procurement phase in order that the Authority can test whether its payment mechanism and performance monitoring works in a "live" environment. The cost of this should be budgeted for. A training session with the help desk manager would be beneficial at this time.
4.12 The project manager should be encouraged to stay in post for an agreed period after contract signature and this cost should also be budgeted for.