Issue - meetings

Joint report of Directors for Children’s Integrated Services & Commissioning and Procurement

Lisa Lopez, Lead Commissioning Officer, presented the report, highlighting the following:

·  Nottingham City Council’s (NCC) current accreditation process for Semi-Independent Accommodation was due to end, and the existing contracts due to expire, in March 2023;

·  as such, approval was being sought to utilise the opportunity to jointly commission a Supported Accommodation light-touch framework contract across the D2N2 area, replacing the existing accreditation;

·  as this would be a framework, and therefore services paid for solely based on activity, the costs in the report were only indicative and NCC would only pay for services actually commissioned;

·  commissioning services jointly across the D2N2 area was likely to result in more efficient use of resources, and, as Derby City Council were leading the re-commissioning, it would reduce pressure on NCC resources and align with the Residential and Foster Carers frameworks, which are currently jointly commissioned across D2N2.

In response to questions, Ms Lopez stated that although the:

·  main aim of the service was around accommodation provision, it also included life-skills training, such as financial responsibility etc;

·  D2N2 area was large, with providers across all regions, NCC would look to place service users locally where possible, or across the region if that was more appropriate.

Resolved

(1)  to approve:

(a)  procurement of the provision of Supported Accommodation for Children in Care, as detailed in appendix 1, in partnership with the D2N2 councils, through an appropriate procurement process led by Derby City Council, to commence on 1 August 2022 for a five–year period, with an option to extend for a further two periods of 2-years and one period of 1-year (5+2+2+1), therefore up to a maximum 10 years in total;

(b)  a maximum expenditure of £12,355,200 for the provisionover the entirety of the contract (up to 10 years), to be met from the Children's Placement Service budget;

(3)  to delegate authority to the:

(a)  Head of Contracting and Procurement to sign as required any inter-Local Authority partnership agreement to set out the legally binding relationship and inter-dependencies between Nottingham City, Derby City, Derbyshire County and Nottinghamshire County Councils;

(b)  Head of Children in Care (Regulated Services) to award any call-off contract(s) in accordance with the Council’s scheme of delegation number 274(a).

Reasons for recommendations

1)  To provide high quality, local accommodation for older children in care, aged 16 years and over. Commissioning a light touch framework contract for placements within Nottingham City, in addition to the other existing provision, will ensure the young people who are moving towards living independently will have access to high quality accommodation and support locally.

2)  The current Nottingham City Council accreditation has over 50 providers – this is extremely challenging for our Quality Assurance colleagues to monitor on an ongoing basis. The D2N2 framework will have up to 10 providers for each local authority – this will provide sufficient opportunities to secure placements, whilst keeping the number of providers manageable and thus improving quality. This service will form part of a range of accommodation and support options to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65