Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director Strategy & Resources, the Director of Commissioning and Procurement, the Director of Quality & Change, and the Head of Integration for Adults

Claire Labdon-West, Commissioning Manager, introduced the report on Extra Care provision to the Committee she highlighted the following points from the report:

(a)  Extra care provision targets citizens who are at risk of needing residential care within 6 months and works to reduce that risk and allow the citizen to maintain their own tenancy for as long as possible;

(b)  There are currently 225 units of Extra care accommodation available and the new development at Winwood Heights will take that number to 245.

(c)  Under the proposed model citizens will have their needs assessed and then be placed in a care band by Adult Social Care. The bands relate to the general care requirements, with a focus on achieving outcomes set by the citizen and Adult Social Care within the number of hours set for the care band;

The Chair asked that his thanks be passed on to the finance colleague who provided the extensive and in-depth finance comments

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Procure onsite providers for Woodvale and Winwood Heights for a three year period with an option to extend for a further three years (at the discretion if the Council) via an open and competitive tender;

(2)  To delegate authority to the head of contracting and procurement to approve the outcome of the tenders and award the contracts wo secure best value;

(3)  To delegate authority to the market Strategy Development Manger to sign contracts arising from the tender process once the tender outcome is agreed;

(4)  To approve expenditure in association of the amount detailed in the report £3.822million

Reasons for decision

1)  Extra Care provision provides a viable alternative to residential care and improves outcomes for citizens. It has been shown  to reduce the use of residential care for older people in other local authorities and has led to an increase in independence for citizens;

2)  The increase in cost of Extra care by increasing the available unit numbers is anticipated to be offset by reductions in the level of spend on homecare and residential care reducing the overall spend by the Council;

Other options considered

The option of doing nothing and allowing the expiry of the contract at Woodvale was rejected. The current and new proposed contracts are needed to ensure that citizens receive the support they need in order to remain independent for longer

The other alternative option considered was to allow the contract at Woodvale to expire and no longer commission a provider there. Citizens in receipt of night care would be moved to the alternative provision at Winwood Heights and all other packages could be managed through Homecare contracts. This option was rejected as it does not increase the number of Extra Care units in order to increase independence and has the potential to have negative impacts on care provided to citizens. Alternatively those citizens in receipt of night care could be moved to residential care. This would be an additional financial pressure on the Council and so this option was also rejected.