Agenda item

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

This report seeks approval to extend the Council’s contract for the provision of Housing Related Support Mental Health Accommodation provided by St Mungo’s and Sanctuary Housing.  The extension is requested for one year from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.

 The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health introduced this report which sought approval to vary and extend the Council’s contract for the provision of Information, Advice and Guidance services, held by Haringey Citizens Advice Bureaux, for up to 23 months from 2nd April 2020 to 1st April 2022.

The Cabinet Member noted the Council was committed to supporting people with a mental health diagnosis, who needed accommodation to help their recovery. Housing Related Support supported a wide range of people to develop independent living skills to aid recovery and enable them to move on to live independently.

The Cabinet Member was pleased to support the approach proposed which would see short term extensions to the current arrangements to ensure that the service continues whilst a new model is co-designed with stakeholders before commissioning gets underway for the future.

RESOLVED

That pursuant to Contract Standing Order 10.02.1(b), approve to:

1. Extend Sanctuary Housing Association accommodation with forensic provision contract for one year from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, and vary the contract to provide an annual uplift of £50,000 on the original contract value. The total annual cost of the extension for Sanctuary Housing Association will be £365,934, to include the £50,000 uplift. The total contract cost over the life of the contract will be £1,629,670.

2. Extend St Mungo’s accommodation with 24 hour support and visiting support (Mental Health West) contract for 1 year from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, and vary the contract to provide an annual uplift of £50,000 on the original contract value. The total annual cost of the extension for St Mungo’s will be £531, 631, to include £50,000 uplift. The total contract cost over the life of the contract will be £2,458,155.

Reasons for decision

Mental Health supported housing is an important element of the accommodation pathway for people with mental health needs. It is felt to be in the Council’s overall interest to agree an extension for the two contracts as this will enable a review of the existing services and a planned redesign of the whole mental health accommodation pathway to be completed. The mental health accommodation pathway offers a range of options including 24 hour support, forensic, medium support and lower support services offering visiting support as well as the contracts identified here and it is important that services work together to ensure a range of needs can be met. The contracts were awarded from 1 April 2016 for a period of 4 years with the option to extend for a period of 1 year + 1 year.

In light of the contribution made by these services to the health and wellbeing of local residents, there is a need to continue to provide a Housing Related Support Service for Haringey residents aged 18 years and over without a break. This will continue to help both to prevent homelessness and to sustain tenancies for vulnerable adults, by supporting them to develop and strengthen the skills and knowledge required to live independently. There is a continued high demand for mental health supported housing, and residents are referred both from Barnet, Haringey and Enfield Mental Health Trust (BEHMHT) and through the housing route through Homes for Haringey.

In addition, enabling people to move into supported housing where this meets their needs reduces social care costs and is also a cost effective means to support people who may then not need a social care intervention.

The performance of the contractors has been evaluated as good throughout the contract period. Performance returns have been submitted by both providers throughout the course of the contract and targets are being met.

An uplift to the current contract price has been recommended to reflect inflation and staffing cost increases over the 4 year course of the contract.

Alternative options considered

Do Nothing - It would be possible to leave the contract to expire at the end of this contract period. However, as noted above, there is continued demand for this service, and it was not felt viable to have no mental health supported housing service in place particularly given other pressures on other elements of the pathway. Rather, it was agreed to carry out an evaluation to recommission the accommodation pathway to best meet the needs of Haringey Residents.  Therefore, it would not be in the Council’s interest not to continue with mental health supported housing.

Go out to tender – It would be possible to go out to tender to seek a new and refreshed service, which could result in a new delivery provider. However, given the need for redesign and for changes to the existing model, it was felt to be preferable to set in place a contract for one year only to enable further information to be collected to inform commissioning from 1 April 2021.

Deliver the services in house – Both providers are using their own accommodation to support this service, as well as agreements and leases with other landlords, and for the Council to establish appropriate accommodation from which to deliver the service in-house would not be possible in the time frames available. However, the planned redesign of the mental health accommodation pathway does offer scope to consider further an in-house model for this or for other elements of the pathway.