Decision details

Approval to Extend Existing Contract with Sentinel Partners Ltd for Supply of Early Years Funding Solution

Decision Maker: Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Families

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: Yes

Purpose:

The report seeks approval to extend the contract for the early years funding system for a period of 2 years.

Decision:

That an extension of the contract with Sentinel Partners Ltd for the provision of the online early years funding solution for a period of 2 years from 31 July 2022 to 30 July 2024 at an annual value of £26,200 (Total value £52,400) be approved.

Reasons for the decision:

Bromley Early Years Funding team annually distributes approximately £20M of early years funding to Bromley providers for approximately 6,500 children.  Following a detailed market testing exercise in 2019, the contract for the provision of a digital early years’ funding solution was awarded by exemption to Sentinel Partners whose system had the necessary functionality to process all seven of the early years funding streams and identify duplicate claims, as well as to pay monthly claims based on actual hours’ rather than estimates as required by the Department for Education.  In order to fully meet Bromley’s specification, it was agreed at that time that Sentinel Partners would develop their off-the-shelf product to include provider and parent portals that provided a self-service option that was transparent and had a clear audit trail for funded hours used and claimed.  Under the existing contract terms there is an option to extend this service for a further two years which will provide continuity and stability for service users as well as time to further develop and improve the product.

Publication date: 16/06/2022

Date of decision: 16/06/2022

Effective from: 24/06/2022

Accompanying Documents: