Agenda item

Award of Contract for Adults Advocacy Service

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

 

Report seeking approval to award contracts for adults advocacy services following the conclusion of Haringey-led Barnet, Enfield and Haringey tender exercise.

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report which concerned the provision of advocacy under the Mental Capacity Act and the Mental Health Act, work which has been led by Haringey in partnership with Barnet and Enfield in light of our shared mental health provider the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust. Provision of advocacy under these Acts was statutory and required specialist arrangements to be in place given the vulnerability and the particular circumstances of the people affected.

 

The Leader confirmed that the two organisations named in the recommendations were London Living Wage employers.

 

In response to questions from Cllr Dennison, the following was noted.

 

  • Assurance was provided that the Council would continue to monitor the efficiency of the services to ensure the required outcomes for concerned residents was being achieved. There was a Quality Assurance team in the Commissioning team that undertook outreach work that fulfilled this role and regularly monitored the quality of existing and new contracts.

 

  • With regard to the withdrawal of the first ranked provider, considerable efforts were made to discuss their withdrawal, including face-to-face contact.

 

  • In relation to the differences in scoring, this information was contained in the exempt part of the report and could not be divulged in the open part of the meeting.

 

 

Following consideration of the exempt information:

 

RESOLVED

1.1.       That cabinet approves the award of contracts in respect of the provision of Joint Advocacy Services for the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey to Bidder B and Bidder C for an initial period of 3 years with an option to extend for a further period of one plus one year.

 

1.2.       Subject to approval being granted the London Borough of Haringey will enter into contractual agreements jointly with the London Boroughs of Barnet and Enfield, and award contracts to the successful bidders.

 

Reasons for decision

 

The current contracts for IMHA / IMCA and Care Act expire on 30th September

2018.

 

A full tender process was carried out for the services and the award of contract approved by Cabinet in February 2018. Following the Cabinet decision, award notifications were issued and the process for establishing contracts with the 1st ranked tenderer was commenced to ensure the start of contracts in July 2018.

 

This provider withdrew from the tender in May 2018 and as such officers have extended our current contracts for IMHA/IMCA and Care Act Advocacy services until 30th September 2018 with a view to ensuring enough time for effective transition arrangements to be put in place with the incumbent providers and incoming providers.

 

Cabinet is asked to agree to award to the 2nd ranked tenderers following the withdrawal of the winning tenderer.

 

Alternative options considered

 

Haringey to commission advocacy services independently:

 

This option was considered but it was deemed more beneficial to jointly commission the services with neighbouring boroughs in order to benefit from economies of scale associated with collaborative procurements.

 

Haringey, Enfield and Barnet to re-commission IMHA, IMCA and Care Act Advocacy services again via a new procurement process, extending our existing contracts until 2019.

 

The option of undertaking a 2nd procurement exercise for these services following the withdrawal of the 1st ranked bidder has been explored with the boroughs of Barnet and Enfield but discounted because officers believe the market in these services is such that the outcome from any subsequent tender exercise is unlikely to be markedly different. Officers do not expect additional providers beyond those who engaged in the procurement to partake in a tender exercise. Officers are also concerned that interim arrangements do not provide the necessary certainty for operational staff and indeed residents who access advocacy services as services can be required over a long period of time (12 months plus). To ensure continuity of advocate is available to residents the sooner long-term contracts can be established the better.

 

Do nothing

 

This is not an option as these are statutory services

Supporting documents: