Agenda item

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

The Housing Related Support contracts for the Single Homeless Pathway were awarded to St Mungo's and St Ignatius on 12/01/2015 and are due to end on 11/01/2021. The contracts were due to go out to tender in March 2020 but due to COVID19 organisations were unable to undertake a full tender process. Procurement have granted an extension of up to 14 months to allow for organisations to return to normal and be able to bid for services.  Therefore the report will be seeking to extend the contracts to 11/03/2022.

(Cllr Ibrahim returned to the meeting for this item)

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health outlined the Council’s commitment to end street homelessness in the borough and ensuring vulnerable people have access to high quality supported accommodation to help rebuild their lives.

The Council currently commissioned and directly delivered a range of supported accommodation for single adults that provided person-centred and tailored support. The Cabinet Member recommended that these contracts should be extended, as set out in the report, to offer vulnerable residents’ continuity and security while a new service model was co-designed and put in place in 2021.

In response to a question from Cllr Ogiehor , it was noted that there was a range of support in place for people on the single homeless pathway. The contract extensions allowed the Council to continue to work with the current providers. The Council recognised that no one agency could meet the varied needs of users of there was whole system approach being taken forward and awareness that support continued, once the vulnerable adult was moved to accommodation.

Further to considering the exempt information at item 420,

RESOLVED

To approve, in accordance with Contract Standing Order (CSO) 10.02.1(b), the variation and extension of the following single homeless contracts for a period of up to 14 months as outlined below:

(i)            St Mungo’s Community Housing Association Ltd for the Assessment an Engagement Service at a total additional cost of £508,908. The aggregated value of the contract over a period of 7 years and 2 months will be £3,764,269 including proposed extension.

(ii)          St Mungo’s Community Housing Association Ltd for the provision of a Specialist Substance Misuse and Offender Service and Complex Needs Service at a total additional cost of £789,974. The aggregated value of the contract over a period of 6 years and 11 months will be £5,863,768 including proposed extension.

(iii)         St Mungo’s Community Housing Association Ltd for the provision of Women’s Complex Needs Service and Northumberland Park Pilot Service at a total additional cost of £322,979. The aggregated value of the contract over a period of 4 years and 2 months will be £997,879.00 including proposed extension.

(iv)         St Ignatius Housing Association Ltd for the provision of a Move Through Service at a total additional cost of £145,470 and a reduction of units from 57 to 50. The aggregated value of the contract over a period of 7 years and 2 months will be £1,203,492 including proposed extension.

(v)          Variation of contacts to include provision for the Councils to claw back funding from providers who do not fulfil the staffing requirement of their contract.

Reasons for decision

It is in the Council’s overall interest to agree to the extension of the current contracts whilst a tender process is completed. The current contracts were awarded for a period of four years with option to extend for an additional two years until January 2021. An open tender process was planned early this year in order to and ensure new contracts would be put in place before the expiry of current contracts and a supplier engagement event held in March 2020. However, the tender process was delayed due to disruptions caused by Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, as the existing resources were diverted to support vulnerable residents and ensure business continuity. Furthermore, the impact of the pandemic on homeless service providers and supported housing services led to a number of limitations to the supply market as providers focused their efforts on managing the situation which meant that a tender process would be onerous for bidders and would not be an efficient use of Council resources.

An award of the contract to St Mungo’s and St Ignatius for up to 14 months is required to avoid disruption to the delivery of support and accommodation to vulnerable adults as well as extra time required to undergo virtual consultations and stakeholder feedback, which will inform the service specification of the Single Homeless Pathway contracts and address the needs and gaps identified in the last 12 months.

The total award of the FHSG funding of £322,979 in contracts with St Mungo’s meets the Council’s strategic commitment to deliver early intervention to people in crisis, preventing homelessness. The FHSG is a ring-fenced grant from Central Government, to be used for ‘work to prevent or deal with homelessness’. Future funding allocations will be closely linked to boroughs ability to prevent homelessness at scale.

Given the above reasons, it is paramount to extend all seven (7) existing contracts to allow sufficient time to undertake a competitive procurement process. It will also allow time to smooth transition and mobilisation of contracts.

Performance has been evaluated as good throughout the contract period. Performance returns are completed and submitted on time and targets are met.

Alternative options considered.

There is only a statutory requirement to provide housing for single homeless people where they are identified as vulnerable and in priority need under Section 189 of the Housing Act (1996 amended 2002). However, Haringey like all London boroughs recognises the human, social and economic costs associated with homelessness and the need to ensure that people are adequately supported to recover from it and prevent future instances. Therefore, it is not deemed in the best interests of homeless individuals or the Council to cease the current contracts for the provision of supported housing services.

Deliver the services in house – St Ignatius and St Mungo’s have established agreements and leases with the current landlords. For the Council to take over existing leases and deliver the service in-house, we would need considerably more time to undergo due diligence and negotiations with the landlords, however with the planned redesign of the single homeless pathway insourcing is the preferred option for all services in the pathway and therefore will be robustly explored where it is advantageous for residents and the Council.

Procurement of new contracts was considered; however, this would not facilitate sufficient time to draw on recent service reviews to redesign the service and then engage with the market to identify best value and best practice.