Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care, and Well-Being considered the report which noted that Community Equipment supported vulnerable people to remain independent for longer improving their outcomes and reducing the need for more formal and costly care.

It was noted that, to enable the best value for money in purchasing commuminty equipment, mainly due to economies of scale, Haringey joined the London Consortium for the provision of Community Equipment. Haringey jointly tendered and awarded the contract to Medequip Assistive Technology Ltd (‘Medequip’) through a framework contract (“the Framework”). At present the Consortium consisted of 21 London Boroughs out of 33. The only borough delivering in house equipment store was Enfield.

The 4-year Framework with Medequip was agreed at Cabinet in February 2017 (taking the contract to 2021) with the option to extend for 1+1 years (to March 2023). Both extension periods had been agreed by the consortium.

Since then, additional services had benefitted from access to this contract, increasing the volume of equipment being supplied and therefore the associated value of the contract. The additional services include Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND), the Paediatric Therapy Team at Whittington Health and the Community Alarm Team (CAS) which all procured their community equipment stock through this contract. In addition, there had been increased demand for community equipment from the contract during the pandemic.

This increased activity would result in there being insufficient budget reflected in the contract for the financial year 2022-23 and there was a need to increase the total contract value by £1.1 million, from £10.8 million to £11.9 million.

The Cabinet Member RESOLVED

To approve the increase in the value of the Framework with Medequip by £1.1 million for the remainder of the contract term to March 31 2023, in accordance with Contract Standing Order 10.02.1(b).

Reasons for decision

Cabinet originally approved the award of the Framework in March 2017 for the initial period of 4 years with an option to extend for 2 years at a total value of some £7.2 million. In February 2020 Cabinet approved a contract extension to March 2023, and variation to increase the contract value to £10.8 million.

Since the contract extension in February 2020, the Covid pandemic has affected all areas of life, leading to unprecedented demand for use of the community equipment service which has continued to meet the challenge. The increased demand and other factors set out below resulted in 20% higher spending through the contract by the 5 services in 2020-21, up from £1.77 million to just under £2.2 million As an example, average monthly spending through the contract increased to £177,000 in 2020/21 and has increased again to £193,000 in the first 6 months of 2021-22.

The other factors leading to increased costs include:

An increase in community equipment prices. From April 1st 2021, 520 Medequip stock items had a price increase whilst 420 remained the same. The net effect was a 2.7% price increase. The price rises were driven by large increases  ...  view the full minutes text for item 169