Issue - meetings

[Report of the Interim Deputy Chief Executive. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Culture.]Report seeking approval to award a contract for the provision of IMCA, IMHA, Care Act Advocacy and Children’s Advocacy across Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. Haringey are the procurement/contracts lead on behalf of the three boroughs.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Culture introduced the report, which sought approval to the award of contracts for the provision of Joint Advocacy Services for the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey in accordance with Contract Standing Order 9.07.1 (d).

In response to a question from Cllr Carter, there was a high quality threshold for tenderers to progress through to reach this final stage of contract recommendation. Savings were across all three areas and it was important to recognise that this was a demand led service so there was a need to have some capacity. This was in relation to the funded element of the contract but the council would look to use these savings to fund additional advocacy services, in anticipation of future demand and to provide capacity for the service going forward.

Following consideration of the exempt information at item 23.

RESOLVED

1.    To approve the award of contracts in respect of the provision of Joint Advocacy Services for the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey.

2.    To enter into contractual agreements jointly with the London Boroughs of Barnet and Enfield, and award contracts to the successful bidders named in Part B of this report.

Reasons for decision

The current contracts for IMHA / IMCA and Care Act and Children expire on 31^st March 2018.

A full tender process has been carried out and the recommendation in paragraph 3 is made following the completion of evaluations by a joint team of Council officers from the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, as well as officers from Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust in relation to the provision of IMHA services. Officers from across adults and children’s social care were involved because the services being tendered for spanned across adults and children. The recommendation provides best value for the Council.

The lot structure was considered carefully to ensure Lot 1 was for the provision of IMHA services, Lot 2 for the provision of IMCA and Care Act Advocacy services and Lot 3 for Children’s Advocacy services. Lot 2 includes two distinct statutory advocacy services for adults (IMCA and Care Act Advocacy) because there is a significant amount of overlap between the statutory requirements for IMCA and Care Act Advocacy. Combining the services together enables service users to be supported by the same advocate/service for IMCA and Care Act Advocacy should they need the input of both. This reduces the need for a person to repeat their story to different advocates and also allows for a more efficient service.

Alternative options considered

Haringey to commission advocacy services independently:

This option was considered but it was deemed more beneficial to jointly commission the services with neighbouring boroughs in order to benefit from economies of scale associated with collaborative procurements.

Do nothing

This is not an option as these are statutory services