Agenda item

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

The report requests approval to extend the DPS for Residential and Nursing categories for a period of 1 year to 31^st July 2022 with provision to extend for up to a further 6 months, subject to utilisation value.

The Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Wellbeing introduced the report which sought approval for the extension of the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) procurement sourcing tool for the provision of Residential and Nursing care requirements. The proposal was to extend the DPS for Residential and Nursing categories for a period of 1 year to 31 July 2022, with provision to extend for up to a further 6 months.

The Cabinet Member and the Assistant Director for Commissioning responded to questions from Councillor Palmer:

-           The past year had been a difficult year, which had resulted in a shift in how services and processes were managed.

-           The service had been engaging with the market and built good relationships through the North Central London network and it was hoped that this would help other service providers to recognise the benefits of a DPS. Other boroughs did not yet have access to the DPS at this stage, but it was hoped that through engagement, the benefits of this procurement route would be recognised.

RESOLVED

1.         That pursuant to Contract Standing Order 10.02.1(b) to approve the extension of the Dynamic Purchasing System for 1 year with the option to extend for 6 months for the following care provision in the values outlined below:

Reasons for decision

The Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) is a supplier e-sourcing tool and a compliant route to market under the Public Contract Regulations, which enables suppliers to enrol, accredit and be approved to bid for Council contracts. The Council’s overall spend for residential and nursing over the past financial year was in the region of £25,545,000 and £9,496,000 respectively (a combined value of £35,041,000) the Council already holds a DPS enterprise license through until November 2022 and would not incur any additional expenditure on licenses for this period.

Due to the exigencies of the Covid-19 pandemic a significant amount of additional work was generated for the commissioning team, which meant insufficient time was available to enable a tender process to renew fully the DPS for this market. Moreover, Commissioning had to rationalise work and focus on the renewal of the Home Support DPS, as well as managing the daily communications with the provider market around testing, PPE, infection control and vaccinations. Had there been sufficient resources DPS renewals could have been undertaken simultaneously.

The DPS provides a compliant route to market for care provision, which ensures transparency in the procurement process, equal treatment of suppliers and that the requirements of both the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and the Council’s Contract Standing Orders (CSO) can be met, particularly as much of care provision is purchased on an individual basis and the Regulations do not provide for hitherto ‘spot contracts. Purchasing compliantly outside of a DPS would require either a resource intensive approach, whereby each requirement would be commissioned separately, and suppliers would go through the accreditation checks for each opportunity. This could prevent suppliers from bidding for the services and place the provision of these services at risk or we would need to establish a framework, which could exclude many local SMEs from meeting the criteria to qualify under a framework. In addition, a framework does not allow for suppliers to join at any time and prevents new start-ups and entrants from accessing Council contracts during the term of the framework.

A DPS is beneficial in that it enables supply chain expansion as suppliers can join at any time during its lifetime, unlike a traditional framework where only suppliers at inception remain within it until expiry. This means that the supply chain can be renewed and replenished throughout its term, which lends itself to more competition and therefore better value for the Council and its users.  

A DPS enables the Council, to undertake time efficient tender processes, which facilitates speed of award and service delivery. The DPS streamlines the Council’s procurement/commissioning, contract administration and finance processes, which can be undertaken under the one system.

Importantly, extending the DPS for up to eighteen months in total will provide an opportunity for the Commissioning and Strategic Procurement teams to review their strategies going forward, and identify what sourcing and contractual arrangements options will provide access to high quality care, best value and process efficiency. Additionally, Commissioning will be able to assess the impact caused by the recent Covid pandemic, as well as update documentation to account for current circumstances, emergent need, or identified gaps in provision, for example to meet specialisms like dementia care, end of life and palliative provisions.

Moreover, Strategic Procurement will support the care supply chain during the extension period by holding market events to identify any issues and assist suitable economic operators to enrol, accredit and effectively use the DPS system to compliantly deliver the Council’s Residential/Nursing Care requirements

Alternative options considered.

Do Nothing – this option would require the Council to seek alternate procurement arrangements incurring significant additional costs and resource effort to facilitate procuring over 714 placement per year, each needing the supplier to re-present accreditation requirements, that will then need to be evaluated.

Establish a framework for Residential and Nursing Care – this option was discounted in preference to the use of a DPS for commissioning these services. This is primarily due to the restrictions applied to the duration of a framework and the limitation of suppliers only being able to be admitted at the point of establishment of the framework. In comparison to a framework, a DPS enables an unlimited number of suppliers to join at any time; provided they meet the accreditation and enrolment criteria. The call off process from a framework is much more administratively intensive than that of a DPS.