To secure the best output from the Contract Management Team the Authority will need to ensure it has the appropriate support. Typical requirements will include:
• Support staff - the Contract Management Team should be assigned dedicated administrative support staff so that they do not become over burdened by administration to the extent it impacts on the effectiveness of the management of the Contract.
• Specialist advice from other departments - for example, the Contract Management Team may need to draw in planning expertise during the planning period or engineering expertise during the construction period. For further guidance in relation to the optimum balance between using internal resource within the Authority and buying in specialist advice from external advisers see Section 3.5.
• The resource requirements needed to manage and communicate with users of the project facilities and services. For example, in a residual waste project the only users other than the WDA itself are really the WCAs (that use the delivery points provided by the Contractor) whereas in an integrated project incorporating collection services the public are the users of the service and the resource implications would be very different.
• Support systems such as an IT system for performance recording, reporting and management; together with hard copy and electronic document management systems.