Joint report of Corporate Director for People and Director of Public Health

Councillor Woodings, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care and Health, introduced the report.

Uzmah Bhatti, Senior Public Health Manager, presented the report, and stated the following:

 i.  Nottingham City Council (NCC) Public Health Department has commissioned Nottingham CityCare Partnership Children in Care to deliver the ‘Giving Nottingham Children the Best Start in Life’ service in partnership with the NCC Early Help Team. The contract period runs for 5 years (1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023) with an option to extend for two further two-year periods (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2025 and 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027);

ii.  the Public Health Grant has received an uplift for contracts containing staff on ‘Agenda for Change’ (AfC) since 2020. At the time, it was unclear if this was a one-off uplift or would be applied each year. As a result, a fixed increase was agreed with CityCare;

iii.  clarification of the process has led to a reassessment of the situation and, as a result, NCC have applied the NHS Pay Award Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance and re-calculated an updated contract value for 2022/23 based on annual AfC increases (minus efficiency) since 2019/20;

iv.  the new contract value for 2022/23 is £10,058,270, an increase of £756,627. This newvalue will be applied for the remainder of the contract (a total cost of £3,783,135), funded from the Public Health Grant;

v.  it is proposed that the contract value is increased annually by the net uplift figure published within the NHS Pay Award Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance (which considers the AfC increase minus efficiencies). It is not possible to know this number in advance, but an estimate of 4% has been used to provide an estimate of the additional cost over the remainder of the contract (£1,708,483). This again will be funded from the Public Health grant.

Resolved

(1)  to approve use of £3,783,135 from the Public Health grant to cover an increase of £756,627 per annum in the ‘Best Start in Life’ contract from 2022/23 until 2026/27, should Nottingham City Council enact the option to extend its contract (by 2+2 years);

(2)  to delegate authority to the Director of Public Health to implement future ‘Agenda for Change’ uplifts, for the remainder of the contract, in accordance with NHS published figures, up to a maximum value of £1,708,483.

Reasons for recommendations

A new contract value has been established for the ‘Giving Nottingham Children the Best Start in Life’ service using NHS Pay Award Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance since 2018/19 (see appendix 1a); an increase of £756,627 per annum from 2022/23. This totals £3,026,508 when applied till the end of the contract in March 2027 and will be funded through the Public Health Grant.

Each year the NHS Pay Award Revenue Finance and Contracting Guidance outlines the net uplift after considering a Cost uplift factor and NHS efficiency factor. This formula has been used to establish a new contract value for 2022/232 and is recommended to be applied each year for the remainder of the contract.

As the NHS net uplift value changes each year, the amount of additional funding that will be added to the contract each year till March 2027, is unknown. Using an estimate of 4% (based on 2021/22), it is estimated a total £1,708,483 from the public health grant will be required to meet Agenda for Change responsibilities and maintain service provision between 2022/23 to 2026/27.

Other options considered

Do nothing - This would transfer the financial burden of the additional pay costs to the service provider and risk a reduction in service provision to meet the costs of delivering the Healthy Child programme.