Issue - meetings

That

1.  The award of a contract for a Domiciliary Care Patch Provider, as detailed in the accompanying Part 2 report, be approved for the period 1 August 2024 to 26 August 2026 with the option to extend for a further three years at an estimated value of £3.52m per annum.

2.  Award of contracts to the Domiciliary Care Reserve Patch framework, as detailed in the accompanying Part 2 report, be approved for the period 1 August 2024 to 26 August 2026 with the option to extend for a further three years.

3.  Authority be delegated to the Director of Adult Social Care, subject to Agreement with the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care & Health Services, the Assistant Director Governance & Contracts, the Director of Corporate Services and Governance and the Director of Finance, to both apply the extension option for this Patch contract (in line with the existing delegated authority arrangements) and to award further contracts, as appropriate and as required, from the Domiciliary Care Reserve Patch Provider framework during the lifetime of the current Patch contract arrangements.

Report ACH24-034

The Chairman welcomed Members of the Children, Education and Families Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee, and the Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Families, to the meeting for consideration of this item.

Members considered a report seeking Executive approval to award a substantive Patch contract together with award of contracts to four providers for the Reserve Patch framework.

Under its statutory responsibilities for adult social care, the Council provided domiciliary care services to eligible adult residents at approximately 15,000 hours of standard care per week at an estimated cost of £16m per annum. The Head of Service – Community Living Commissioning advised Members that eligible children and young people also accessed domiciliary care services at an estimated cost of £1.5m per annum, rather than £1m as stated in the report. Members were advised that domiciliary care was delivered through a network of providers. The main provider contracts were based on geographical locations or patches (East, West, Central and South). Each patch was supported by one to three provider contracts, depending on size, known as Patch Providers. Patch Providers were expected to support up to an estimated 70% of domiciliary care packages within their patch, with the remainder of packages supported by a wider Domiciliary Care Framework of providers.

The Patch contracts commenced in August 2021 for a five year period with the option to extend for a further three years with delegated authority to the Chief Officer to apply the extension options. In June 2023, the contract with a Central Patch Provider was terminated early and Executive approval was received to proceed to procurement to replenish the portfolio of Patch contracts. The procurement was also designed to identify further providers to be awarded to a Reserve Patch framework from which future contracts may be awarded, as appropriate, in the event of a further need to replace a Patch contract (Report ACH24-006).

The report, together with the accompanying Part 2 report, set out the outcome of the tendering process and sought Executive approval to award a substantive Patch contract together with award of contracts to four providers for the Reserve Patch framework.

RESOLVED that the recommendations in the report be supported.