THE council is to spend over £1m on the procurement of a counselling service for local schoolchildren.

It's hoped that the new professional service, which has been planned for some time, will be ready for the schools going back in August.

Councillors believe the timing of the service could be perfect, following the unprecedented events of the last three months and the schools shutdown.

The outlay on the service was debated at a meeting of the local authority's policy and resources executive sub-committee.

During the debate a top official was cautioned against merely accepting the cheapest bid for a potential £1.2m contract to provide the school age counselling service for Inverclyde's young people.

Powers have been delegated to property and legal services director Gerard Malone to award the work in the absence of a further meeting of elected members during the summer holiday.

But Conservative councillor Graeme Brooks took issue with a report which sought authority for Mr Malone to 'accept the most economically advantageous tender'.

Mr Brooks said: "I want to ensure that there's more weight given to this than just the economics.

"I want the best organisation, within reason, to deliver this service.

"Could I get clarity that the weighting is more than just towards pounds, shillings and pence."

Cllr Brooks also asked about the possibility of an Inverclyde company or charity being awarded the contract.

Education director Ruth Binks assured the committee that a '60-40' rationale in terms of quality of service and value for money would be adopted.

Decision maker Mr Malone declared: "The officers group will make a recommendation exactly as Ruth has outlined.

"The agreed contract will involve an element for quality and an element in terms of price.

"That recommendation will be evaluated and then there will be a formal report to myself which I will share with other relevant officers before any delegated powers are exercised.

"I don't know if there's a local company within Inverclyde within the mix at all."

The committee was told that the total value of the tender exercise is £1.198m, with seven bids for the work having been received.

The contract is set to be awarded to the successful bidder over the next few weeks.

SNP councillor Elizabeth Robertson praised council officials for their efforts in getting the proposal to this stage.

She said: "I'd just like to say thank you for getting us to the point where we have such a healthy bank of people who have tendered for this piece of work.

"I'm on record already as saying how important I think it is, and how I would have hoped we'd have been able to get it a lot sooner than we have.

"But actually having it in place for when the kids go back is amazing.

"It is probably more crucial than ever before."