Issue - meetings

Joint report of the Assistant Chief Executive and the Director of Commissioning and Procurement

Clare Labdon-West, Commissioning Manager, introduced the report seeking approval to establish an Accreditation Process for the procurement of day and evening opportunities for vulnerable adults with a personal budget. This will replace the existing Framework when this comes to an end in February 2017. The new contracts will commence in March 2017 and be for three years plus a potential three year extension. The services will provide a range of outcome focussed, person centred activities for eligible citizens including those with a learning disability, mental health issues, physical disabilities and older people.

RESOLVED to

(1)  approve the establishment of an Accredited List of providers for Day and Evening Services for vulnerable adults with a personal budget;

(2)  delegate authority to the Director of Procurement and Commissioning to approve the outcome of the procurement processes and award contracts to providers that are deemed suitable to be part of the Accredited List;

(3)  delegate authority to the Head of Contracting and Procurement to sign the final contracts.

Reasons for decision

An Accreditation Process will enable Nottingham City Council to vet and qualify potential providers of day and evening opportunities to ensure they have the ability to provide such services. The process is similar to the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire phase of a tender process and will look at the organisations’ suitability to provide a service. This will include examining the company’s finances as well as ensuring that relevant policies and processes are in place. Checks will also be carried out to ensure that there is no legal reason why the provider should not deliver the service. The detail of the service, including quality standards, will be included in the service specification and contract. The providers will then be subject to Nottingham City Council’s quality monitoring processes.

The current Framework for Day and Evening Services was established in 2013 and was fixed for 4 years. Several of the existing providers within Nottingham City were unsuccessful in the tendering process and were therefore not included in the Framework. As there was still a need for their provision and citizens have continued to choose these providers, spot contracting arrangements have been used. There have also been a number of new providers enter the market that have been unable to join the Framework. In order to make use of their provision, spot contracts have been required. This puts additional pressure on the council in terms of managing the process. Although citizens are able to access direct payments for provision, it is reported by operational colleagues that often citizens do not want this option despite this being offered during the assessment process. This is particularly true of citizens with a learning disability where there is reported to be a clear preference for a managed account.

Day and evening services are unregulated and providers are not required to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. Providers who are part of the current Framework are subject to contract monitoring from the Contract Performance Care and Support Team which includes the internal  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27