Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director of Children’s Services.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families]

This report seeks approval of the proposal to insource the Travel Buddy Service in order to maintain service, improve quality of provision and to support a community wealth approach

The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families introduced the report which reported on work carried out to evaluate the Council’s travel buddy service and sought approval for the creation of an inhouse team in line with the Council’s Insourcing Policy.  This had been a long journey in reforming SEN travel, and the in-house service would provide 62 support staff for young people every day.  All members of staff would be employed directly by the Council.

The Cabinet Member responded the questions from the Cabinet:

-           The staff employed by the service were mainly local people who had previously been employed on zero-hour contracts without the benefits of proper employment.

-           Paragraph 7.3 of the report outlined how the service would improve active travel – by encouraging people to walk or use public transport where possible.

RESOLVED

1.         That Cabinet approves the insourcing of the Council’s travel buddies service from the current interim DPS arrangement brought about by the withdrawal of services from the previous provider.

2.        That the service be brought inhouse before September 1^st 2021 to coincide with the new academic year.

Reasons for decision:

The Haringey special educational needs and disability (SEND) School Transport Service provides an important service to children, young people, and their families.  One important part of this service is our travel buddy team who are responsible for accompanying children with special educational needs to their place of learning with the goal of promoting independent travel.

Until June 2020, the travel buddy service was facilitated by an external provider.  Due to emerging concerns about COVID, and the future viability of the service, at that time of the UK’s first national lockdown the provider informed the Council that they no longer wished to continue providing the service.

In order to preserve the service and to provide continuity for affected children, Haringey promptly committed to keeping all our 62 travel buddies employed via an interim framework facilitated by Procurement colleagues under a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) arrangement.

It was acknowledged from the outset that this DPS arrangement would be a temporary measure while a full commissioning review of suitable options for the future travel buddy service was undertaken.  That commissioning process was subsequently carried out in line with the measures set out in the Council’s Insourcing Policy.

Haringey’s Insourcing Policy was approved and adopted by Cabinet in October 2019.  The Insourcing Policy includes a commitment to a structured approach to support sustained progress on this agenda by:

•      making it easier for us to work collaboratively with our communities in the design and delivery of public services which reflect what they need, recognising that service delivery is a core element of our relationship with residents.

•      strengthening our organisational sustainability and resilience, by further developing the skills and knowledge of our workforce; and our organisational capacity and infrastructure.

•      increasing the numbers of locally employed people who will benefit from the excellent terms and conditions we offer as an employer.

•      opening services to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 586