Agenda item

Report of the Director for Children’s Services. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families.

The report is requesting approval of the spend for the  recommissioning of Home Care,  Family Support  and Family Therapeutic Services. The plan is to recommission the service via DPS Axian system.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families introduced the report. It was explained that the Council was committed to supporting families to care for vulnerable children and young people with complex health needs within the family home and to help them to take breaks from caring where the need arises. It was explained that the commissioning of this service would provide early therapeutic intervention to support children to remain with their families or return to their care safely and as quickly as possible. It was highlighted that there was a focus on accountability and quality standards through robust negotiation and monitoring of contracts is an essential element of commissioning and is vital for ensuring families receive high quality services.

In response to comments and questions from Cllr Emery, the following information was shared:

• Officers explained that the DPS functioned effectively as an individual competition for provision of individual needs, which ensures best value for money.
  
  
• That rates within the Children’s Services market remained stable and were not majorly impacted by inflation, however, officers stressed that they would consider inflation and ask for justification for increases.
  
  
• Officers explained that feedback from the services as they were running which included social workers and those experiencing services as commissioned. It was explained that the development of the DPS allowed for better meeting of needs and created an approved framework. 

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1.       Approved the estimated, spend of up to £7.2 million on Home Care, Family Support and Family Therapeutic Support Services over the period of up to 4 years.

2.       Approved the commissioning of Home Care, Family Support and Family Therapeutic Support for 0-18 children and young people, via the corporate DPS pursuant to Regulation 34 of the Public Contract Regulations.

3.       Where contracts were £500,000 and above that require approval by Cabinet as per Contract Standing Order (CSO) 9.07.1 d) or modified as per CSO 10.02.1 b) (variations and extensions to contracts of £500,000 and above); Cabinet delegated authority to the Director of Children’s Services in consultation with the Lead member for Children’s, Schools and families to award, vary or extend any individual call offs or block contract arrangements under the DPS to successful providers up to £800,000 per award or any individual variation and extension.

REASON FOR DECISION

Commissioning home care and family support services will support the council to meet our priorities for children and young people. Providers commissioned will work with the council to ensure that families receive timely services that can meet their needs, to strengthen families’ resilience, support more effective parenting and behaviour management. In addition, to ensure that adults within the family have the practical skills to keep the home safe and reduce the harm posed to children and young people.  

Haringey’s looked after children's strategy recognises that delivering transformational change requires a strong focus on prevention and early intervention. It outlines the importance of reducing the number of children and young people needing to be looked after by the local authority which is a key feature of our policies and plans. The continuation of high-quality home care, family support and family therapeutic support services will support this agenda.

Approval to procure home care, family support and family therapeutic support services via the DPS will ensure the council is compliant with Procurement Regulations.

The council intends to commission the following block arrangements:

·         Block arrangement with two specialist family therapeutic support services where the need arises at a lower unit cost. The estimated value would be circa £200,000 (based on 12 cases) per financial year, over 4 years would be circa £800,000.

·         Bundled hours with up to 4 home care and family support providers, establishing a minimum number of guaranteed hours with a reduction of up to 5% of the hourly rate.

·         This initiative will support improved collaborative working between the council and providers.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED

Do nothing: There is a continued demand for this service to support families to continue to care for children and young people with complex health needs and intervention to families and carers of children displaying violent behaviours, misusing substances, and other challenges that families and carers may face.  To meet the needs of the children, young people and their families, the Council would be needed to commission the Home Care and family support provisions on spot purchasing basis. This approach is not permitted under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and would be likely be more costly and resource intensive.

Deliver the service in house -This option was discounted based on the scale of the infrastructure required to deliver home care, family support and family therapeutic support services in-house. In house services can give councils greater control over the care that is provided although quality is not guaranteed through an in – house delivery model. Additionally, in-house models tend to be more expensive than external provisions, often due to inefficiencies.