Agenda item

Antony Dixon, Strategic Commissioning Manager presented the report to the Committee and highlighted the following points:

(a)  Currently only 62% of homecare in the city is being delivered through the Care at Home framework with the remainder being delivered via spot contracts or under the old framework. Spot contracts are very resource intensive and give limited control over quality and price.

(b)  The dynamic purchasing system will manage the delivery of homecare outside of the framework. It will be compliant with EU Procurement rules, will simplify the process, will enable the Council to better control the price of care, and will be a quality assurance mechanism.

(c)  The funding is contained within current spend. There is an issue around the need to establish prices for providers, but there is currently such variance with spot contracts that it is anticipated that it will prove to be less expensive, and will not be more costly.

RESOLVED to

(1)  Approve the establishment of a Dynamic Purchasing System for homecare purchased outside of the existing Care at Home Framework. Contracts awarded through the framework will run until 31st December 2017 with the potential to extend these contracts for a further 2 years.

(2)  Delegate authority to the Head of Contracting and Procurement to award and sign contracts to the successful providers identified through this process.

Reasons for Recommendations

The establishment of a Dynamic Purchasing System will ensure that care

purchased outside of the Care at Home framework will be procured through

an EU compliant process, with all Providers having passed basic qualification

criteria and delivering to the same contract terms, providing a mechanism for

responding to quality and delivery concerns.

Other Options Considered

(1)  Do nothing: Current contracting arrangements would be continued as they are with the Framework being the first choice of option for services and then previous framework and non-framework providers. This option is not recommended due to the fact that a large amount of services risk being purchased outside of the EU procured Care at Home Framework, the resource requirements needed to manage such a system and because of concerns that spot contractual arrangements are not delivering value for money and quality concerns cannot be managed satisfactorily or to the required quality.

(2)  Re-open Existing Framework: The framework would be re-opened through a repeat tender to increase the number of providers within it and therefore its capacity. This option is not recommended due to risk of increased costs, potential risk of legal challenge, the timeframe required for implementation and doubts of whether required resource would actually result from doing so.

(3)  Transition All packages to Lead Framework Providers: All packages currently outside the Framework would be transitioned to the new framework. Depending on how this is done, TUPE may or may not occur. Where it occurs Service Users will take their carers with them and experience little disruption to services. Very careful planning around how to transfer packages would be essential to making this work and ensuring a smooth transfer for citizens. This option has been considered at length but is not recommended due to the resource intensive nature of undertaking such a process together with risk of legal challenge.

(4)  Develop new model: A new model would be developed and retendered. This would replace the existing framework which could be terminated and would aim to ensure all existing packages were brought into the same contractual framework. This work is now in motion but will not be ready to implement until 2017-18.