Agenda item

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

The Council is seeking to implement a new framework contract for the provision of short breaks services for children and young people aged 0-18 (resident in Haringey) with a disability and/or additional needs.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced the report, which sought approval from Cabinet to establish an open framework for the provision of short break services for children and young people with disabilities, and award framework agreements with the eight providers identified in appendix 1of the attached report, as allowed under Contract Standing Order 9.07.1(d).

The Cabinet Member advocated this improved framework for commissioning placements for some of the most disadvantaged children and young people with disabilities in the borough.

 It was important for the Council to promote inclusion of children with special needs at every juncture. It was a statutory responsibility to provide short breaks for children with disabilities, required under Children’s act 1999; the policy framework offered a more organised approach, moving from a spot purchasing system to a framework with providers commissioned through a robust process. These providers were largely charitable organisations. In summary, the report demonstrated a positive approach to improving this service. The Cabinet Member was pleased that a consultation process with families had been undertaken and had allowed them to set out their priorities and say, what they thought was important to assist them supporting their children.

Around 200 children would access this service and the outcomes devised with families who were in the best position to advise on the type of breaks for their children.

In response to questions from Cllr Mark Blake and Cllr Cawley- Harrison, the following was noted:

• The Cabinet Member, personally, felt that Pendarren could be used all year round and  would work with officers to explore this potential.
• The Cabinet Member agreed that quality of service was a critical issue and it was noted that the key driving factor was the views of parents of disabled children and this provided a core specification on which to judge the quality. The service had asked providers to submit method statements against specified criteria for scoring. There was transparency within these four bidders and how the scoring had been taken forward. In terms of future review, the ambition behind this was evident, in that it was an open review. Therefore, if parents felt there was a gap in the services, officers can review concerns and could add to the framework to meet the need. The key driver was making the difference in the lives of children and young people with SEND.
• It was noted that the Commissioning Service followed the procurement public sector regulations to make an award of this type.
• In terms of access to the scores from the adjudicators on how the points were awarded. This was exempt information but the service could publish the method statements and criteria applied but not the detailed information on the scoring. The Assistant Monitoring Officer concurred with this response and added that a ‘need to know’ statement would need to be provided through the member enquiries process in order to access this exempt information.

Further to considering exempt information at item 25,

RESOLVED

1. To establish an open framework for the provision of short break services for children and young people with disabilities for an initial period of three years commencing on 29th July 2019, with the option to extend for a further period of one year with a total estimated value of £1,140,000;

2. To award framework agreements for the provision of short break services for children and young people with disabilities to the eight providers identified in appendix 1 of this report as allowed under Contract Standing Order 9.07.1(d) for a duration of three years commencing on 29th July 2019, with the option to extend for a further period of up to one year;

3. To give delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Commissioning to award framework agreements to successful providers on each occasion that the framework for the provision of short break services for children and young people with disabilities reopens, where award of the framework agreements to the successful providers will not result in an increase to the total estimated value of the framework.

Reasons for decision

Haringey Council has a statutory duty to provide short break services for disabled children and young people and their carers, in line with the Children Act 1989 and Children and Families Act 2014 and their associated regulations and guidance.

The Council currently provides short break services through spot purchasing. The new framework will ensure that Haringey Council has robust contractual arrangements in place with high quality providers who are able to meet the needs of disabled children and young people.

A full tender process was conducted in accordance with the Council’s Contract Standing Orders and the recommendations to establish an open framework and to appoint providers to that new framework is made following the completion of tender evaluations.

Alternative options considered

Keep current model of service delivery:

Haringey Council currently spot purchases short breaks services for children and young people with managed personal budgets, as allocated by the Disabled Children’s Team.

This option was considered and rejected for the following reasons:

• Haringey Council should ensure that robust contractual arrangements are in place.
• A new framework would increase the Council’s oversight of pricing and support robust, formal monitoring arrangements.
• Introducing a new framework for short breaks services will enable Haringey Council to increase the range and number of short breaks services available to Haringey families.

In- house provision

This option was considered and rejected for the following reasons:

• A directly delivered short breaks service could limit family choice, compared to the range of specialist services that families can access from external providers. Haringey families have consistently told us that it is very important to be able to choose from a range of short breaks services. This is key to supporting personalisation and choice in line with the Children and Families Act 2014.
• The Council does not currently have the significant level of resources that would be required to deliver the service in house. This option would require substantial investment to establish an in-house short breaks service.
• Haringey Council has not been able to directly deliver consistently high quality short breaks services in the past, as highlighted in previous ‘Requires Improvement’ Ofsted judgements of the Haslemere Road Respite Centre. This resulted from challenges surrounding management capacity, staffing recruitment and workforce skills. There is a risk that these operational challenges would reoccur, should Haringey pursue an in-house short breaks provision.

A full options appraisal was conducted for the route to market, which resulted in the decision to establish an Open Framework Agreement. Alternative contract models included:

• Block contracts:

This option was rejected on the grounds that block contracts are not sufficiently flexible to support family choice and adapt to changing demand for short breaks services.

• Closed Framework:

Whilst this option would enable a more flexible approach to purchasing short breaks services, the risk of restricted entry to a Framework Agreement could result in not having enough approved providers to meet demand.

• Dynamic Purchasing System:

This option was rejected on the grounds that the volume and spend for short breaks services was not sufficiently high to require a Dynamic Purchasing System, particularly as take-up of direct payments increases.