Agenda item

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

Award the contract for the Multi-Disciplinary Project Design Team to design and deliver the project to demolish the existing nursing home and create a new 70-bed nursing provision, café, day centre, 20 flats (mix of 1 and 2 beds) as well as 10 studio extra care apartments.

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health introduced the report which sought approval to award a contract to provide construction related multi-disciplinary consultancy services for the development of Osborne Grove Nursing Home.  The award of the contract marked the next phase in redeveloping the site at Osborne Grove to deliver a new nursing home, including provision for older residents and dedicated end of life provision for people with a history of homelessness, as well as community facilities to enhance the Council’s offer to older residents in Haringey.

The Cabinet Member and Charlotte Pomery, Assistant Director for Commissioning, responded to questions from Councillor Cawley-Harrison:

-           The primary concern was for the provision of services for Haringey residents, and decisions had not been made in relation to self-funders.

-           Comparative costs of out of borough nursing home provision would be provided in writing.

Further to considering exempt information at item 28, 

RESOLVED to

1.         Approve an award of contract to Ingleton Wood LLP up to £2,185,257.25 (inclusive of surveys and contingency).   This is based on delivering Multi-Disciplinary Services from RIBA Stage 2 to 6. Refer to Part B of this report for exempt information.

Reasons for decision

In July 2019 Cabinet approved a scheme that included the demolition of the existing buildings on site and the construction of a 70-bed nursing home.  The minutes of this meeting included reference to the desire by Cabinet to also seek to maximise the use of the site.

A further feasibility study completed in March 2020 demonstrated that the land where the existing facility is provided, offered significant opportunity for development to not only meet the recognised demand for nursing care but also additional housing demand across the Borough. 

There is not the skills or resources available in-house to deliver these works hence the requirement to appoint an external consultant for these services. 

Alternative Options Considered

In-house – delivering the role in-house was considered, however there is currently no resource within the Council that has the capacity along with the necessary experience, qualifications, and expertise to deliver this service.

The Dynamic Purchasing System was chosen to invite tenders above £160k as recommended by Strategic Procurement.

Do nothing – The option to retain a 32-bed dual registration residential/nursing home on the site was considered but rejected, primarily because it would not increase the registered nursing capacity within the borough and because it would not address a number of fundamental design issues with the current building which prevent it functioning effectively as a nursing home and which could not be fully addressed due to structural limitations of the building.  A review of activity and demand in Haringey confirmed the need for increased nursing bed capacity in the area. There are currently 175 Haringey service users in receipt of nursing care and this figure is projected to grow to around 250 by 2022/23. On the supply side, there is only one nursing home in Haringey. It has not, therefore, been possible for local demand for nursing care to be met in borough for some time and Haringey purchases over 74% of its nursing care out of borough. Traditionally, Haringey’s demand for nursing care would have been met by nursing homes in North Central London but increasingly, Haringey is having to look beyond the sub-region to meet this demand with 21% of nursing beds purchased out of North Central London at present. The reason that Haringey now purchases beds across a wider geographical area is that – despite the widely reported and increasing demand – the capacity in the marketplace for nursing and residential care is shrinking. For example, there were 56 nursing homes across North Central London (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington) in 2015 and now there are 49. A number of other providers are restricting access only to self-funders or reducing the proportion of Local Authority placements they are willing to accept. This means that the absolute capacity of nursing care beds available for Haringey to commission is decreasing. This is a national picture reflecting the fragility of this sector of the social care market, the uncertainty over future funding mechanisms and the challenge of delivering nursing care to frail, older people with complex needs.  Therefore, the Council needs to actively intervene within the market to secure provision for the future.