Issue - meetings

Nursing Care Beds Procurement Strategy

Meeting: 14/03/2018 - Adult Care and Health Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee (Item 87)

87 Nursing Care Beds Contract Award Part 1 (Public) Information pdf icon PDF 138 KB

Minutes:

Report CS18127-1

 

The Committee considered a Part 1 (Public) report requesting the Council’s Executive approve the award of a block contract of 70 nursing care beds for a period of seven years from 2nd January 2018 to 1st January 2025, with the option to extend the contract for a further three year period.

 

The Local Authority had a statutory responsibility to ensure that it was not contributing towards the unnecessary delay of patients being discharged from hospital.  To support this, the Local Authority had agreed a block contract with Mission Care which provided 48 nursing home placements and an additional 12 placements on a first refusal basis in 2012 which had been identified as offering good value for money but had no option to extend beyond 1st January 2018.  As it was not possible to predict the future demand for nursing home beds and there were times when all contracted beds were full, the Local Authority often had to spot-purchase additional nursing bed placements which had a significant cost implication and the potential to delay discharge from hospital.  To ensure sufficient availability of nursing home placements in the medium term, it was proposed that the Local Authority commission a new block contract for 60 nursing home placements and 10 placements on a first refusal basis.  Purchasing nursing home beds via a block contract had been identified as being a cost effective strategy as it provided beds at a guaranteed price and reduced the administration associated with making placements.  The Local Authority had maximised the use of the existing block contract and was achieving 100% usage of block and first refusal beds at very competitive prices.

 

In considering the way that the quality of care homes was rated, the Interim Director: Programmes confirmed that there was often a significant interval between Care Quality Commission (CQC) Inspections and CQC Inspection reports being published during which time a significant amount of work was undertaken by providers and the Local Authority to implement any necessary improvement measures.  The Local Authority’s Quality Monitoring Team closely monitored the quality of provision at any care home rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’ which ensured that any care placement made was based on the current quality of service and not an out-of-date rating which could not be updated until the CQC revisited a home. 

 

Councillor Kevin Brooks requested that his opposition to the proposed contract award be recorded in the minutes.

 

RESOLVED that the Council’s Executive be recommended to:

 

1)  Approve a contract award for 70 block nursing care beds for a period of seven years from 2nd January 2018 to 1st January 2025, with the option to extend the contract for a further three year period;

 

2)  Approve the increase in supporting budget arising from the impact of the National Living Wage as detailed in the Part 2 (Exempt) report; and,

 

3)  Delegate the authorisation to extend the contract for a period of up to three years to the Executive Director:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87