Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Public Health. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Health.]Execution of the option agreed by Cabinet of two years on contract for delivery of substance misuse services for young people (total contract length is five years).

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the report which sought agreement to the extension of the substance misuse service for children, young people and families substance misuse service. The contract was previously awarded by Cabinet for an initial period of three years, with an option to extend for a further 2 years, the current contract ends in March 2017.

Cabinet noted that this contract met a specific need of young people having problems with substance misuse and it was important to have readymade tailored support which the provider had delivered and was recommended to continue.

RESOLVED

In accordance with CSO 10.02.2 to agree the extension of the following contract for 2 years.

Reasons for decision

In 2014 a contract was awarded by Cabinet for a children’s young people and families substance misuse service. The contract length was for 3 years with the option to extend for a further 2 years.

 The service has recently been realigned with the Council’s new children’s services structure and is working in an integrated way with teams.

The service is meeting expected outcomes. To ensure continued service improvement over the next two years, the service will be monitored on a quarterly basis and the public health commissioner will continue to meet with children’s service managers to ensure the service is working closely with the Council’s children’s services.

Alternative options considered

There is a competitive market for the provision of adult substance misuse services; however few provide stand alone children’s services. When the service was tendered in 2013/14 there were 3 bidders. Instead of extending the contracts Haringey could have returned to the market by retendering, it took the decisions not to for the following reasons;

Since the last procurement no new market opportunities in terms of technological changes or new providers, have arisen.

·         The current provider was the incumbent provider when the service was last tendered and continues to deliver well and to have an excellent relationship with children’s services particularly schools. 

·         When benchmarked against other Councils this services perform well in terms of outcome and the length of time it takes to complete treatment.

·         There is no intention at this stage to radically re-specify the services.

Re tendering creates anxiety within staff and service users, the types of services delivered within this contract relay on a strong stable relationship between service users and their key worker