Agenda item

Katy Ball, Director of Procurement and Children’s Commissioning, presented her report.  The East Midlands Regional Provider Framework for Looked After Children placed in Independent Foster Care and Residential Care has been under review in 2015 with a view to all 9 local authorities committed to the current agreement committing themselves to the new agreement from February 2016. Katy highlighted the following points, which include responses to councillors’ questions:

(a)  The current framework is due to expire and following a review the committee needs to decide whether the Council should commit to being a partner under the new proposed arrangements;

(b)  The cost will be £37,000 per annum plus £10,000 in 2015 for market development work.  This cost is based on all 9 local authorities continuing to sign up to the agreement;

(c)  It is proposed that the Council signs up subject to a number of caveats, including that a minimum of 6 authorities sign up to the agreement and that the evaluation of the providers’ process is robust;

(d)  The focus of the partnership is restricted to the East Midlands rather than more widely as this enables the Council to place children as closely to the city as possible;

(e)  The benefits of working as a regional partnership provide the Council with flexible buying power and the ability to make savings while providing quality placements.

RESOLVED to

(1)  support the Nottingham City Council’s commitment to the new East Midlands Regional Children’s Framework Agreement, with the following caveats in place:

(a)  a minimum of 6 local authorities also confirm their commitment;

(b)  the process is developed to encourage providers to tender on best price and quality to ensure that the proposed removal of tiers doesn’t result in a preferred provider list with no distinction between the quality and cost of provision;

(c)  the tendering and evaluation process is robust enough to ensure that those providers who are placed on the framework have passed rigorous scrutiny on their quality and cost;

(2)  agree funding of £37,000 per annum plus an additional £10,000 for 2015/16 for development costs as Nottingham City Council’s share of the East Midlands Regional Provider Framework cost.

Reasons for recommendations

(1)  The current East Midlands Regional Provider Framework for Looked After Children placed in Independent Foster Care and Residential Care has provided a structure for the commissioning of external placements for Looked After Children in Nottingham City since April 2011. This has supported the Placements Service in sourcing appropriate placements, taking into account quality, price, location and children’s individual needs. The Framework has driven reduced costs for Nottingham and enabled a platform to share information about the quality of providers.

(2)  The framework agreement has been developed throughout the review process to enable all local authorities within the region to be engaged, which increases the scope of the framework and the influence on the external market, but has also led to some fundamental changes in the specification. The local authority is keen to remain engaged but requires additional assurance in relation to the evaluation of tenders and the commitment of other local authorities.

Other options considered

(1)  None. Without the East Midlands Regional Provider Framework, Nottingham City Council would need to invest resources in developing a local framework for residential and fostering providers to ensure robust management of the quality and cost of provision being commissioned. This would minimise Nottingham City Council’s influence, particularly in relation to the cost of placements and there would be a reduction in the infrastructure of support provided by working as a consortia with other local authorities.