Agenda and minutes

To note that the following changes have been made to the Committee’s membership:

Voting Members

Replace Assistant Chief Executive/ Strategic Director for Strategy and Commissioning (City Council) with Director of Commissioning and Procurement (City Council)

Non-Voting Members

Replace Director for Procurement and Children’s Commissioning (City Council) with Head of Commissioning (City Council)

Remove Director of the Crime and Drugs Partnership

RESOLVED to note the following changes to the Sub-Committee’s membership:

Voting Members

Replace Assistant Chief Executive/ Strategic Director for Strategy and Commissioning (City Council) with Director of Commissioning and Procurement (City Council)

Non-Voting Members

Replace Director for Procurement and Children’s Commissioning (City Council) with Head of Commissioning (City Council)

Remove Director of the Crime and Drugs Partnership

Dr Marcus Bicknell

Martin Gawith

Councillor Alex Norris

Maria Principe

None

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2016

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2016 were confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

Darren Revill, Finance Analyst, introduced the report outlining the 2016/17 Quarter 1 budget monitoring information for the Better Care Fund.  He highlighted that:

a)  The fund balance at the end of Quarter 1 was £178,285.

b)  The forecast position of the pooled fund at Quarter 1 showed an underspend of £535,000.  This was due to slippage in various schemes, most notably seven day working within social care which is now not planned to start during 2016/17.

c)  The updated forecast of the 2015/16 pooled fund balance showed a £122,000 underspend against commitments.

During discussion it was noted that there was an item later on the agenda regarding proposals to allocate the underspend.

RESOLVED to  

(1)  note the cash flow position of the Better Care Fund Pooled Fund as at Quarter 1 of 2016/17 as set out in table 1 of the report; and

(2)  note the forecast position of the Better Care Fund Pooled Fund as detailed in tables 2 and 3 of the report.

This item was withdrawn from the agenda.

Lisa Lopez, Commissioning Manager Nottingham City Council, introduced the report setting out proposals for the procurement of services to support adult carers and young carers and carrying out statutory assessments to identify carers’ needs.  She highlighted the following information:

a)  Carer support is a form of early intervention, improving the quality of life for both carers and the people that they are caring for.  The Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014 place duties on the Local Authority to assess and meet the needs of carers.

b)  There are approximately 27,000 carers in Nottingham City but this is likely to be an under-estimation as many carers don’t identify as such.  Carers in Nottingham City are older than the national average and undertake caring responsibilities for more hours per week than the national average.

c)  The contracts for existing services to support carers end on 31 March 2017.

d)  Current carer support services are commissioned from a range of providers.  The creation of a single combined Carers Hub has the potential to improve efficiency, streamline the referral pathway and increase awareness of the support available to carers.

e)  It is anticipated that savings of £85,000 per year will be achieved while supporting over 200 more carers than previously.

f)  Carers have been consulted and included in every stage of the process; including consultation with carers from BAME communities (support for carers from BAME communities had previously been identified as a weakness of current services).

g)  The proposed services will be funded through the Better Care Fund.

During discussion it was confirmed that it was proposed to use an aligned commissioning model.  The Sub-Committee expressed a need for further clarification as to which organisation will hold the contract and therefore who should sign the contract.

RESOLVED to

(1)  approve the expenditure of £4.175m of the Better Care Fund budget over the entirety of the contract term for the provision of the Carer Support Services as detailed in exempt appendix 1;

(2)  approve the procurement of the three Carer Support Services as detailed in exempt appendix 1, through an appropriate procurement process, and to award contracts for the services based on the outcomes of the procurement process.  The approved contracts to commence on 1 April 2017 for a three year period with an option to extend on an annual basis for a further two years (3+1+1) to a maximum of 5 years in total.  The procurement of, and contractual arrangements for the Carer Support Services to be undertaken jointly by Nottingham City Council and NHS Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group, subject to agreement of suitable processes and arrangements by Director of Commissioning and Procurement (Nottingham City Council) and Director of Cluster Development and Performance (NHS Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group);

(3)  delegate authority to Director of Commissioning and Procurement (Nottingham City Council) and Director of Cluster Development and Performance (NHS Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group) to jointly approve the outcome of the procurement processes and award contracts to providers that are deemed most suitable to provide these services; and

(4)  delegate authority to Director of Commissioning and Procurement (Nottingham City Council) and Assistant Director Health and Care Integration (NHS Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group) to jointly decide who should sign the final contracts and agree annual extensions on the basis of performance and budget availability.

To consider excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

RESOLVED to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the remaining item in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the basis that, having regard to all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Sub-Committee considered the exempt appendices to the Commissioning Support Services for Carers report.

RESOLVED to note the information contained within the exempt appendices.

The Sub-Committee considered the information set out in the exempt report, the details of which can be found in the exempt minute.