Agenda item

Report of Interim Corporate Director for Children and Education Services

Cath Cameron-Jones, Commissioning Manager, introduced the report seeking approval to procure an accredited provider list of homebased and community short breaks provision for disabled children and delegate authority to award call-off contracts.  She highlighted the following information:

a)  The Council has a statutory duty to provide short breaks to disabled children to assist carers of disabled children.

b)  The current accredited provider list ends in September 2024.

c)  The current accredited provider list only has one provider and their provision isn’t suitable for all children because it primarily focuses on learning disabilities and therefore is not necessarily suitable for children with physical disabilities.  Therefore, work has been taking place to boost the market. 

d)  There is no commitment to spend.  Eligible families will have an allocated budget.  It is anticipated that most demand will come from families on the two lower pathways as higher needs tend to be met by the in-house service.  There is no intention to cap the price of activities because it can vary so much and would reduce family choice about what best meets their need within their budget.  Call-off will be based on family choice first but if there are a number of providers able to provide the same offer there will be a mini competition (this is unlikely given the market).

e)  There are currently approximately 80 children eligible but with no allocated budget.  This is partly because existing provision doesn’t have capacity or is unable to meet their needs.  There will be variation each year in the number of applications so demand is difficult to predict.  It is also anticipated that some families currently using direct payments may prefer a managed budget so the managed budget allowance has been amended to reflect this.  There is a risk that improvements in provision will increase demand but the Council has a statutory duty to provide short breaks and will continue to look at its approach to allocations.

f)  Residential overnight stays are commissioned via a separate contract.

During subsequent discussion and in response to questions from the Committee, the following points were made:

g)  The market development work that has taken place is really positive and there is potential for other services, such as adult social care, to learn from it.

h)  There is a risk that providers increase their prices.  It is known that Nottinghamshire County Council pay considerably more, especially for 1:1 provision, and providers are aware of this.

Resolved to:

(1)  procure an accredited provider list of short breaks provision for a period of up to nine years at a total maximum contract value of £1.8m;

(2)  delegate authority to the Director of Commissioning and Partnerships to approve and award the outcome of the tender process for the Home and Community Short Breaks; and

(3)  delegate authority to the Head of Service Contracts, Quality and Personalisation to enter into an appropriate Accreditation Agreement and to award and sign call-off contracts.

Reasons for decision

i)  The existing Accredited Provider List for short breaks comes to an end on 30 September 2024 and only has one provider on it offering a variety of breaks to young people with learning disabilities.  It is difficult for one provider to offer the full range of provision needed to meet the assessed needs of all children and the limited number of providers available reduces choice and flexibility and may impact on price.  Recent market development work has enabled a further 11 organisations to develop short break offers mainly aimed at children with physical disabilities and long-term illnesses.  It is anticipated that most of these providers will join a new accredited provider list and there are indications that there is a strong local market interested in offering short breaks which can be developed further.  Therefore an accredited provider list is the most practical way of ensuring a procurement compliant method of purchasing services whilst enabling new providers to join the accredited list at any time, thus supporting the development of a buoyant provider market.

Other options considered

j)  Options to commission a block with one or multiple providers was rejected because, while it would provide a fixed price, it would limit the options for diversity of offer, reduce choice and lead to unused but paid for provision.  It is hypothesised that with a more robust short break offer the Council will experience significant change across how services are used and therefore an approach that can test out different models without commitment is preferred.  The market is currently limited and the Council needs to work closely with providers in partnership to encourage engagement and thus competition.  An accredited provider list enables the flexibility to procure small blocks as and when demand can be predicted, notably in school holidays, to encourage increased activity at times when it is most needed.  The agreed model will enable providers to offer a range of activities without the Council prescribing what they should offer and this is likely to generate a wider range of options and enable the market to react to the requirements of the young people and their families.