Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care, and Wellbeing considered the report which requested the implementation of Contract Standing (CSO) 10.02.1 (b) to approve a variation and extension of contract to Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (“CNWL”) for a period of 2 years from July 2022, for the delivery of Haringey Community Sexual Health Services - young people sexual health and long acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods for women of all age groups.

It was anticipated that this service would have been tendered in 2020/21 but the pandemic had caused market and service disruption that meant a tender process was not feasible. The contract extension would allow sufficient time to remodel and direct the service in the wake of unprecedented disruption.

The Cabinet Member RESOLVED

1.    To agree to vary and extend the contract to CNWL for the delivery of Haringey Community Sexual Health Services - young people sexual health and long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods for women of all age groups. From 3 July 2022 to 2July 2024 in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 16.02 and CSO 10.02.1(b).

2.    To note that the contract value over the proposed two-year extension will be £2,000,000 or £1,000.000 per annum. The total contract value over the 6 years of the contract is (£5,046, 939 + £2m) £7,046,939.

Reasons for decision

As a consequence of health concerns, confinement measures and service closures adopted in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, there has been severe disruption to the core provision of the service alongside other local and regional services that are inter-connected as part of the wider sexual health services landscape. Sufficient time is now needed to:

·         Review existing service model, due to operational and service delivery challenges experienced during covid-19 lockdown.

·         Review best practices implemented during the pandemic to meet those challenges.

·         Understand the long-term impact the pandemic has had on how residents will engage with community based sexual health services.

·         Use the opportunity to apply some of the learning garnered through the council’s recovery renewal exercise, to help the council, to better understand how communities disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic are accessing sexual health and wellbeing services in the wake of the continued impact of the virus on society.

·         Allow the council to explore an NCL service model approach with sub-regional partners to mitigate against future clinic restrictions/closures brought about by the pandemic.

Although we have been living with Covid-19 since lock-down began in 2020- it was initially anticipated that the lockdown would last for a short period and allow a return to ‘normality’ which would have allowed the council to start the tender for this service during 2021/22 financial period. However, this became increasing unrealistic and impractical as the pandemic continued to have significant impact on businesses (furlough) and society (restriction on social movement) well into the second quarter of 2021/22 financial year, significantly limiting the market’s ability to respond to opportunities. Moreover, the continued restrictions also created  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.