The Director of Children’s Services presented a report requesting Cabinet’s agreement to an extension of the existing Connexions contract with the Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership for a period of 3 months from 1 October to 31 December 2009.

For the period of the new contract, which was due to start on 1 October 2009, Halton would become the contract holding Authority. The timescale to award the contract had been extended. An additional stage had been included in the process whereby the three prospective bidders submitted a detailed solution before their final bid and the Director gave details of the revised timeline.

The 6 Merseyside authorities and Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership Ltd had agreed in principal to a 3 month extension of the existing contract to take account of the revised timeline. The 3 month extension to December 2009 for all Merseyside Authorities would cost £4,171,290, Wirral’s contribution being £810,450. In 2009-10 Wirral’s Connexions budget was £3,501,900. The Council’s agreed share of the payments profile for April – September totalled £1,881,000, leaving £1,620,900 for the remainder of the year. The contract extension would cost £810,450 and was within the existing budget provision.

Resolved - Following confirmation from the 5 other Merseyside partner authorities, who have agreed to pay their share of costs in order to extend the Connexions contract from 1 October to 31 December, that the existing contract with Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership be extended.