Issue - meetings

[Report of the Assistant Director for Commissioning. To be Introduced by the Cabinet Member for Adults and Health.]

The Council is seeking to implement a new framework contract for the provision of short breaks services for children and young people aged 0-18 (resident in Haringey) with a disability and/or additional needs.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced the report, which sought approval from Cabinet to establish an open framework for the provision of short break services for children and young people with disabilities, and award framework agreements with the eight providers identified in appendix 1of the attached report, as allowed under Contract Standing Order 9.07.1(d).

The Cabinet Member advocated this improved framework for commissioning placements for some of the most disadvantaged children and young people with disabilities in the borough.

 It was important for the Council to promote inclusion of children with special needs at every juncture. It was a statutory responsibility to provide short breaks for children with disabilities, required under Children’s act 1999; the policy framework offered a more organised approach, moving from a spot purchasing system to a framework with providers commissioned through a robust process. These providers were largely charitable organisations. In summary, the report demonstrated a positive approach to improving this service. The Cabinet Member was pleased that a consultation process with families had been undertaken and had allowed them to set out their priorities and say, what they thought was important to assist them supporting their children.

Around 200 children would access this service and the outcomes devised with families who were in the best position to advise on the type of breaks for their children.

In response to questions from Cllr Mark Blake and Cllr Cawley- Harrison, the following was noted:

• The Cabinet Member, personally, felt that Pendarren could be used all year round and  would work with officers to explore this potential.
• The Cabinet Member agreed that quality of service was a critical issue and it was noted that the key driving factor was the views of parents of disabled children and this provided a core specification on which to judge the quality. The service had asked providers to submit method statements against specified criteria for scoring. There was transparency within these four bidders and how the scoring had been taken forward. In terms of future review, the ambition behind this was evident, in that it was an open review. Therefore, if parents felt there was a gap in the services, officers can review concerns and could add to the framework to meet the need. The key driver was making the difference in the lives of children and young people with SEND.
• It was noted that the Commissioning Service followed the procurement public sector regulations to make an award of this type.
• In terms of access to the scores from the adjudicators on how the points were awarded. This was exempt information but the service could publish the method statements and criteria applied but not the detailed information on the scoring. The Assistant Monitoring Officer concurred with this response and added that a ‘need to know’ statement would need to be provided through the member enquiries process in order to access this exempt information.

Further to considering exempt information at item 25,

RESOLVED

1. To establish an open framework for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 160