Issue - meetings

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

This report seeks agreement from Cabinet to award a new contract for the Children, Young People and Families Drug and Alcohol Service as allowed under Contract Standing Order (CSO) 9.07.1 (d).

The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Families introduced the report which sought approval to award a new contract for the Children, Young People and Families Drug and Alcohol Service as allowed under Contract Standing Order (CSO) 9.07.1 (d). The Cabinet Member highlighted paragraph 6.7 of the report which set out the opportunities provided for youth involvement and co-production.

In response to a question from Councillor Palmer, the Director for Public Health explained that there were a number of service level indicators related to the contract, along with a number of other measures used to monitor substance misuse.

Further to considering exempt information at item 21,

RESOLVED

1.         To agree to award the contract for the provision of Children, Young People and Families Drug and Alcohol Services to the successful bidder as outlined in the exempt part of this report.

2.         The contract will be for a period of 4 years from 1^st December 2021 to 30^th November 2025, with option to extend for a further period of 3 years.

3.         The value of the contract for the initial 4 years is £1,264,541.00;  the total value over the life of the contract is £2,212,911.00.

Reasons for decision

The current contract expires on 30^th November 2021. The contract was due to expire on 31^st March 2021 and a tender process was planned to start in Spring 2020 however, this was put on hold due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. The extension until 30^th November 2021 was agreed by Cabinet.

An open tender process was undertaken. It is proposed to award the contract to the winning bidder which was selected based on the quality of the service being offered and the delivery price as set out within the invitation to tender documents. The Council is satisfied that the successful tender represents value for money.

Alternative options considered.

Do nothing.

The Council is not mandated to commission this service and so it could decide to no longer commission this service for its residents. However, there is high demand for this service and no alternative project /programme. Both a Care Quality Commission report and a review by Haringey Healthwatch concluded that this service is highly valued by children, young people and families.

In-house provision

A report was presented to the Insourcing Board to ensure the Council had considered the insourcing of this service. It was agreed that due to nature of this service it was better delivered by a specialist substance misuse provider.