Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies or absence.

Report CSD19102

The Committee considered a report seeking confirmation of the Co-opted Member appointments to the Adult Care and Health PDS Committee and Member appointments to the Our Healthier South East London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2019/20.

The Chairman noted that Healthwatch Bromley had not been in a position to put forward a nomination.  As a result of this the Healthwatch Bromley position would remain vacant until such time as a nomination was received and confirmed by the Committee.

A Member suggested that consideration should be given to appointing a Co-opted Member to represent the Mental Health Service Users Forum.  A Co-opted Member recalled that in previous years a representative from the Mental Health Forum had been co-opted to the Committee.  Noting that mental health concerns underpinned a number of the issues falling within the remit of the Committee the Chairman asked officers to investigate why the Mental Health Forum representation had lapsed.  Officers were also asked to instigate the process for appointing a Co-opted representative from the Mental Health Forum.

Following a brief discussion, the Committee further resolved to formally appoint Mrs Rosalind Luff as Alternate Co-opted Member for Carers.

RESOLVED: That:

1. The following Adult Care and Health PDS Committee Co-opted Member appointments for 2019/20 be agreed:

2. Options for co-opting a representative from the Mental Health Forum be investigated;

3. Mrs Rosalind Luff be appointed alternate co-opted member to represent the Carers Forum; and

4. Councillor Judi Ellis and Councillor Robert Mcilveen be reappointed to the Our Healthier South East London Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee for 2019/20.

There were no declarations of interest.

In response to a query from a Member concerning the minutes of the meeting held on 7^th March 2019, the Interim Chief Executive confirmed that the provision of lease cars was for essential car users only.

The minutes of the meetings held on 7^th March 2019, and 8^th May 2019, were agreed and signed as a correct record.

The Chairman noted that the Acting Executive Managing Director at the Princess Royal University Hospital was currently unwell and the Committee extended its best wishes for a speedy recovery.

A Member requested that a sound system be put in place when visitors attended to give presentations to the Committee and asked that acronyms be avoided as it was often difficult to follow discussions.

The Committee received and noted the minutes from the Health Sub-Committee meetings held on 6^th March 2019, and 4^th April 2019.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions that are not specific to reports on the agenda must have been received in writing 10 working days before the date of the meeting. 

Questions specifically on reports on the agenda should be received within two working days of the normal publication date of the agenda.  Please ensure that questions specifically on reports on the agenda are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Wednesday 19^th June 2019.

No questions had been received.

Report CSD19057

The Committee considered a report setting out the forward work programme and matters outstanding from previous meetings.

The Chairman noted that Members found the visits to care homes valuable and asked that a new schedule of visits be developed and circulated as soon as possible.

Officers were asked to provide an update on the two outstanding actions within the report (relating to Minute 7b and 71a from the meeting held on 7^th March 2019).

In response to a question, the Interim Chief Executive confirmed that the Assistant Director: Governance and Procurement was currently developing a programme where providers of Council contracts were being invited to PDS Committees.  It would take time to prepare the programme of provider scrutiny and it was important that time was factored into meetings in order to make the scrutiny meaningful.  It was anticipated that 45 minutes would be required for each provider.

A Member also asked that Officers give thought to how a report providing a holistic approach to services could be presented to the Committee.  Members noted that often the Committee received reports on individual issues such as transportation and direct payments and this did not provide the opportunity to consider in details how all the issues interlinked.  A Co-opted Member suggested that a good starting point could be for the Committee to receive an update on the changes that were being made to Direct Payments.  The Interim Chief Executive agreed to ask colleagues in Commissioning and the Interim Director for Adult Social Care to prepare a report for the September meeting of the Committee.

Members noted that the Care Homes Options Appraisal would be considered by the Committee when it was available.

The Committee requested that the following items be added to the Work Programme:

• Update on the Changes to Direct Payments (September 2019),
• A report on the Transformation Plan (September 2019),
• Portfolio Plan 2019/20 (September 2019),
• Joint Mental Health Strategy Update (September 2019)
• the Adult Safeguarding Strategy (March 2020).

RESOLVED: That the Work Programme be updated to reflect the changes outlined above.

Report ECHS19050

The Committee considered a report presenting the 6-monthly update of the Adult Care and Health Portfolio Plan 2018-2022.  The Plan focused on four priority outcomes: safeguarding; life chances, resilience and wellbeing; integrated health and social care; and, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness.  Within each priority were a number of statements underpinned by actions and measures of success within the work of Education, Care and Housing Services.

The Assistant Director: Strategy, Performance and Business Support reported that a rolling Portfolio Plan was currently being developed.  This new plan would reflect the changes being implemented as part of the Council-wide Transformation Programme and would be presented to the Committee at its next meeting.

In terms of presentation, a Member suggested that consideration should be given to adding a further column to track completion dates.  It was also suggested that it would be helpful to quantify certain targets, such as ‘increased Direct Payments’.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director: Strategy, Performance and Business Support confirmed that there had been service user involvement in developing the Learning Disability Strategy enabled through the partnership with Bromley Well.  Service users had been encouraged to attend a number of events that had been held across the Borough.

In response to a question from a Co-opted Member concerning the launch of the Older People’s Strategy, the Assistant Director: Strategy, Performance and Business Support confirmed that an initial draft of the Strategy had been completed however, Officers were awaiting the publication of the Government’s Adult Social Care Green Paper as it was likely that this would further inform the Strategy.  There had been a number of delays to the publication of the Green Paper and in light of this Officers were anticipating bringing the Older People’s Strategy to the September meeting of the Committee.

In respect of the development of a User Voice Framework, the Assistant Director: Strategy, Performance and Business Support reported that this was an internal tool used by Officers to ensure that there was a good level of engagement and two way dialogue with service users.

The Committee discussed the issue of the commissioning of easy read training in 2019/20.  A Member reported a number of years ago a big piece of work had been undertaken to develop an agreed picture and symbol bank and that this had been successfully used across the Borough.  Bromley Sparks had been commissioned to undertake this piece of work and the Member suggested that an approach should be made to Bromley Sparks for their records as this may save time and money in developing a new approach.

RESOLVED: That the progress on the actions within the Portfolio Plan for the second half of 2018/19 be noted.

Portfolio Holder decisions for pre-decision scrutiny.

Report FSD19064

The Committee considered a report which provided details of the final outturn position for 2018/19 for the Adult Care and Health Portfolio.  The final outturn for the “controllable” element of the Adult Care and Health budget in 2018/19 was a net underspend of £48,000 compared to the last reported figure of a net underspend of £13,000 based on activity at the end of December 2018.

The report highlighted that the main areas of pressure were in Assessment and Care Management, Learning Disabilities, and Mental Health, and related to the growing number of service users supported, which was above the numbers and baseline of the budget that was agreed for the financial year.  As a demand-led service there was a statutory requirement to provide support and care to residents based on their assessed needs.  In addition to this, more support was being provided to carers to enable them to support their loved ones in order to reduce escalation to statutory care services.

Noting the target for income from the CCG of £108k in respect of services for 18-64+, a Co-opted Member asked how the level of funding from the CCG was agreed.  The Head of Assessment and Care Management explained that the assessment was based on a consideration of whether there was a primary health or a social care need as well as an assessment of hours.  The Managing Director (Bromley CCG) confirmed that contributions were based on an assessment of need and highlighted that there were clear benefits to both the Local Authority and Bromley CCG of working more closely on this issue.

In relation to the recovery of unused direct payments from service users, a Co-opted Member highlighted that recipients of direct payments had the same responsibilities to the people that they paid to help them as an employer.  Direct payment recipients were therefore advised to have some reserves from the direct payment to cover any costs associated with redundancy, sick pay, pension etc. that may arise.

In response to a question, the Head of Adult Health and Housing Finance agreed to provide further details around placements following the meeting.

A Member noted that the underspend in the Public Health Grant had grown significantly since 2014/15.  By way of clarification, the Interim Chief Executive explained that Public Health England had indicated that there would be a net reduction in the grant, this had enabled the Council to manage use of the grant to ensure that any future reductions in the grant would not affect the delivery of key services and that there was sufficient funding to support services that had been commissioned for two or three years.

RESOLVED: That

1. The net underspend of £48,000 on controllable expenditure at the end of 2018/19 be noted; and

2. The Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health be recommended to endorse the 2018/19 final outturn position for the Adult Care and Health Portfolio.

Report FSD19066

The Committee considered a report setting out the budget monitoring position for 2019/20 for the Adult Care and Health Portfolio based on activity up to the end of May 2019.  The current position was a projected overspend of £666,000 on the controllable budget.  Some of the main variances were outlined in the report and included: £590,000 overspend in Assessment and Care Management; £460,000 overspend in Learning Disabilities; £424,000 overspend in Mental Health; and £470,000 underspend in Better Care Fund (BCF) – protection of social care.

The Committee noted that the cost pressures identified were projected to impact in 2020/21 by £2,451,000.  Further growth of £2,431,000 for Adult Social Care had been assumed in the financial forecast (net of mitigation, and excluding the fall-out of Improved Better Care Fund (IBCF) funding; however, given the Council’s “budget gap”, which was projected to increase to around £32m by 2022/23, these growth items were currently unfunded.

Members noted the comments from the Director of Adult Social Care which were included in the report.  These comments highlighted that robust monitoring of all spend was in place and that a series of deliverable management actions for this financial year were being developed.  Action had already been put in place to reduce the ongoing pressure coming from the Discharge to Assess service.  Work had also begun to reduce reliance on short-term and agency staff to enable the service to improve delivery and provide consistent and good practice with an established staff group.  This would be underpinned by regular financial and performance scrutiny where managers would be held to account on a monthly basis.

Members noted that for 2019/20, the Winter Pressures Grant had been included within the enhanced health settlement for the NHS and the social care element of the grant had been built into the Portfolio Budget with no further funding expected.

Noting that in June 2018/19 there had been similar budgetary pressures, a Member suggested that for future reports it may be helpful to have a dashboard covering a 3 year period which would help the Committee to identify trends over a longer period.

RESOLVED: that the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health be recommended to:

1. Note the projected overspend of £666,000 on controllable expenditure, based on information as at May 2019; and

2. Agree the release of amounts carried forward from 2018/19 as set out in section 3.6 of the report.

The Committee considered the following reports on the Executive agenda for 10th July 2019:

Report ECHS19048

In accordance with the Council’s financial and contractual requirements, the report set out the results of the tendering process for the provision of the Mental Health Flexible Support Service and sought Executive approval to award the contracts.  The contract for Mental Health Flexible Support Services was due to expire on 30^th September 2019.  There were no further options to extend the current contract which had an annual value of £0.401m and cumulative spend over the life of the contract to 30^th September 2019 of approximately £2.935m.  The report should be read in conjunction with the Part 2 report (Minute 14b).

The existing Mental Health Flexible Support Service Contract had been in place with Heritage Care since 2012.  A procurement exercise had taken place over 9 months in accordance with the timescales set out in the Gateway Report.  A joint Mental Health Strategy was being written with Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)  and the continued provision of a Mental Health Flexible Support Service would be a key element in delivering the objectives within it.  The Mental Health Flexible Support Service ensured the Council met its duties under the Care Act 2014, which set out a requirement for people to be supported to remain living within the community.  It also enabled the Council to be compliant with the Mental Health Act 1983 in relation to hospital discharges.  The key objective was to provide an effective, timely and flexible response to the needs of service users and enable their rehabilitation and wellbeing.

The current contactor, Heritage Care, had provided services to a high standard over the past 7 years.  The contract was originally let on a block basis of 500 hours per week but this was reduced as the Council could not always utilise all of the funded hours.  The new tender was undertaken using a part block/part flexible basis to enable the Council to benefit from the economies of scale of block provision whist reducing the likelihood of there being under utilised hours and to enable service users to use direct payments where appropriate.

The accompanying Part 2 report provided details surrounding the recommended provider, estimated contract value, and other associated costs which were exempt from publication.

Members noted that this service was to support vulnerable service users and stressed the need for continuity service.  It was suggested that in future a contractual term of 3+2+2 should be considered in order to provide the necessary continuity service.

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to note the Part 1 summary when considering the award of contract for Mental Health Flexible Support Services commencing on 1^st October 2019 until 30^th September 2022, with the potential to extend for a further period of up to 2 years.

Report ECHS19049

The Committee considered a report outlining the current arrangements for the provision of Bromley’s Integrated Community Equipment Service.  The report also set out the options for future procurement.  The contract, which was commissioned through the London Community Equipment Consortium (London Consortium) as a call-off contract, was due to end on 31^st March 2021.  Authorisation was being sought for Bromley to re-procure the Service through continued membership of the London Consortium, which may include extending the current contract for up to one year.

Local Authorities in England had a statutory duty to plan for the provision of certain home-based services, including disability aids and community equipment, to meet the assessed eligible needs of those individuals who were ordinarily resident in their area.  In October 2011, the Executive agreed that Bromley should join the London Community Equipment Consortium, hosted by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.  The Consortium operated a framework contract with Medequip Assistive Technology Ltd, held by the LB Hammersmith and Fulham, with whom Bromley and each member local authority had a call-off contract.  Following the cessation of the tri-borough arrangements, Westminster City Council took over the hosting of the Consortium and was planning to re-tender the framework to have a new contract in place by 1^st April 2021.  A short-term extension of up to one year was also being requested to enable the procurement process and mobilisation to be completed in time for the new contract award.

In response to a question, the Head of Programme Design confirmed that as yet no other Boroughs had confirmed that they would leave the Consortium, whilst there was no indication any would leave the Consortium, it was still very early in the process and most participants were taking their time to confirm their intention to remain.

Members noted that the delivery of this contract had reduced the time that service users were required to wait for equipment, it had also reduced the time taken to remove equipment that was no longer needed.

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to agree the following:

1. The Council participates in a joint re-tendering exercise through the London Consortium.

2. An extension to the value of £2m, should it be required, to the current contract with Medequip under the London Consortium framework for up to one year commencing 1 April 2021, to enable the tendering process to be undertaken.

The Committee considered an update on the Bromley Discharge to Assess (D2A) scheme that had been operating in pilot form. 

In Bromley, the D2A pilot was established in order to transform out of hospital assessment and support processes for people with on-going care and support needs.  D2A enabled a person to leave hospital with immediate wrap around care and support in the community, reducing their length of hospital stay. The assessment of their long term care and support needs was undertaken at home or in a community setting rather than in hospital. Evidence suggested that assessing people in hospital resulted in an over prescribing of on-going care and support needs. Assessing at home, could result in significant reductions in levels of on-going care and support and improved independence.  The pilot also sought to reduce delayed transfers of care (DToC) and the impact prolonged hospital stay had on frail and elderly individuals including reduction in muscle mass and physical ability as well as mental and emotional decline.  The D2A service had a number of positive impacts on individuals and was shown to make a marked improvement on the Delayed Transfer of Care (DToC) figures for Bromley.  In terms of total delays across health and social care, Bromley now had the lowest number of DToC – and therefore the highest performance – amongst comparator local authorities, significantly outstripping the average performance across London and England as a whole.  The pilot was helpful in identifying areas to improve efficiency further and these were already being implemented by management.  If  approved, the revised service would be evaluated with longer term recommendations being made to Members in March 2020. The alternative was to terminate the service which would not only impact negatively upon Bromley’s DTOC performance but would potentially have a considerable impact upon residents leaving hospital.  In addition to this following Executive approval the service would be exposed to competition via a tender, resulting in an interim contract that would run from August 2020 to August 2021.  A parallel domiciliary care tender would ensure that any longer term arrangements were facilitated via the new domiciliary care model.

The Committee noted and supported the following amended recommendations which were tabled:

2.2a   That Executive agree a one-year continuation of the D2A service, revised in light of learning from the pilot, pending an evaluation of the revised service and longer term recommendations being made to Executive in July 2020.

2.2b    Subject to the approval of recommendation 2.2a above, that Executive agree to meet the cost of the overspend on the D2A service with a contribution from the Better Care Fund, currently estimated at £850k.

RESOLVED: That the Executive be recommended to:

1. Note the progress on the D2A pilot and the positive outcomes achieved for individuals;

2. Agree to a one-year continuation of the D2A service, revised in light of learning from the pilot and funded jointly by the Council and Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group from the Better Care Fund, pending an evaluation of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10c

Report ECHS19052

The Committee considered a report recommending that the timescale for procurement related to Learning Disability supported living accommodation be adjusted in order to reflect the direction of travel recommended by the Transformation Board and the Learning Disability Strategy.

The Council currently had 7 block contracts for supported living services for adults with a learning disability (LD). These contracts were held with 5 providers offering care and support provision at 26 accommodation schemes for 125 service users.  Two developments taking place in 2019 suggested the need for a revised procurement plan for LD supported accommodation.  Firstly, the Council’s Transformation Board launched a programme of activity designed to review the Council’s offer as well as explore options for greater effectiveness and efficiency. This included a work stream on services for people with learning disability in order to ensure the Council had a sustainable direction of travel for the provision of care and support including supported accommodation schemes.  Secondly, the Council and the CCG would be developing a Learning Disability Strategy during 2019, intended for approval in October 2019 following extensive consultation with service users, carers, families and stakeholders. The development of the strategy would include:

(i) A review of existing supported accommodation and exploration of Bromley’s future needs; (ii) A review of the model of care and support provided within the supported accommodation offer; (iii) Exploration of other types of support including the provision of extra care housing and support to people living in the community outside of specialist forms of accommodation. 

The proposal required a review of decisions made by the Executive in October 2018.  Two of the Council’s supported living contracts – Sanctuary Home Care Ltd (regarding Johnson Court) and Avenues (regarding a range of schemes at 213 Widmore Road, Swingfield Court, Lancaster House, Goldsmiths Close and Amplio Road) were the subject of Executive discussion in October 2018. These contracts were due to expire in January 2020. Executive agreed to proceed with tendering for these two services. It was imperative that the Council was able to redesign the specification for these services in line with the recommendations and direction of travel of the Adult Social Care Transformation Board and LD Strategy. Due to this, Executive was being recommended to approve rescheduling procurement for the two contracts and award two short contracts to the existing providers.  This would provide an opportunity to align most of Bromley’s supported living contracts  to end during 2021 ensuring that the commissioning and procurement of these contracts would be in line with the direction of travel established in 2019.

The Committee noted the Part 2 report accompanying this item which contained the exempt from publication financial information.

In response to a question, the Senior Commissioner confirmed that it was not anticipated that any further savings would be delivered from retendering the contract.

Members noted that Officers were proposing that groups of schemes or individual services were registered with the CQC as this would provide an enhanced degree of oversight of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10d

To receive the report setting out the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) judgement of King’s College Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Use of Resources and its combined rating for quality and resources.  A link to the report is included below.  A full copy of the report will be provided to the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: Judgement of CQC

The Committee is recommended to:

1.  Receive the report;

2.  Note that full scrutiny of the outcome of the inspection will be undertaken at the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee on 2^nd July 2019.

3.  Formally request that a Service improvement Plan be presented to the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee at the earliest opportunity.

By way of introduction, the Chairman noted that the Council had a statutory responsibility to scrutinise partners within the Health Service.  This function sat with the Adult Care and Health PDS Committee and was delegated to the Health Sub-Committee.  It was proposed that the Health Sub-Committee meeting on 2^nd July 2019 would focus on the CQC Judgement and Members of both the Adult Care and Health PDS Committee and the Health and Wellbeing Board had been invited to that meeting to participate in the discussion.  Dr Clive Kay had confirmed that he would be attending the meeting and the Committee noted that confirmation of other key personnel from the Trust who may be in attendance would be provided in due course.  The Chairman invited Members of the Committee to consider the key issues that should be raised with the representatives from King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

In response to a question, the Chairman confirmed that representatives from the Trust attended most meetings of the Health Sub-Committee.  Sub-Committee Members had also visited the Emergency Department twice.  Whilst acknowledging that there may be lessons to be learnt in respect of scrutiny of the Trust, Members did stress however that they felt that the scrutiny role had been fulfilled in relation to the patient experience for residents, and this scrutiny and challenge had been minuted at each meeting.

Noting the minutes from the Health Sub-Committee meeting held on 3^rd April 2019, which had been provided to the Committee for information, the Interim Chief Executive suggested that the minutes demonstrated that the Sub-Committee had discharged its statutory responsibility.  The key issue for the Committee going forward would be to receive and monitor delivery of the Action Plan developed by the Trust in response to the CQC judgement.

Members further noted that the Bromley Safeguarding Adults Board would be conducting a short review of the CQC judgement in relation to issues of adult safeguarding.

The Committee formally received the report setting out the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) judgement of King’s College Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust.  It was noted that a copy of the full report had been provided in the agenda documents for the Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting on 2^nd July 2019. 

RESOLVED: That

1. The Care Quality Commission’s report be received;

2. Full scrutiny of the outcome of the Inspection be undertaken at the Health Sub-Committee meeting on 2^nd July 2019;

3. A request be made to King’s College NHS Foundation Trust to provide a copy of the Action Plan developed in response to the Inspection at the earliest opportunity; and

4. The Committee review its own scrutiny of the areas for which it has a statutory responsibility for scrutiny.

The Head of Programme Design provided an update to the Committee concerning the information requested by Members at the last meeting in relation to staffing, the number of hours provided, and details of the contract.  The Head of Programme Design confirmed that KPIs had been met or exceeded and the service was on track for further improvement.  Members also noted that the Chief Executive of Community Links Bromley had attended the last meeting of the Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee to answer Members’ questions.

A Member noted that Community Links Bromley was currently advertising for the role of Chief Executive.  The Head of Programme Design confirmed that the position was being advertised but the current post holder had given a commitment to remain until such time as a successor was appointed and in post.

The Head of Programme Design reported that the Task and Finish Group had met and made a valuable contribution to the draft strategy which was now being updated by colleagues in the CCG in light of the comments that had been made. 

The Chairman thanked everyone who had been involved in updating the Strategy.

Following a discussion it was agreed that the Joint Strategy would be presented to the Committee and the Board of the CCG.  The Committee could then take the decision to reconstitute the Task and Finish Group in order to review and contribute to the work streams arising from the Strategy.

The Chairman requested that a further update be provided to the Committee at its September meeting.

The Committee considered a report presenting an extract from the March 2019 Contracts Register for detailed scrutiny.  Members noted that some of the contracts had come to an end since the production of the extract.  The Contracts Register contained in Part 2 of the agenda included a commentary on each contract to inform Members of any issues or developments.

A Member highlighted that the Audit Sub-Committee had recently considered an audit report concerning Older People – Nursing Beds.  Noting that the format of the contracts register did not reflect concerns that may have been raised with the delivery of a contract, the Member suggested that there should be a more robust internal process for referring issues considered by the Audit Sub-Committee to PDS Committees for detailed scrutiny.  The Member also suggested that reports seeking the renewal of contracts should contain more detailed background information.  In relation to the specific contract, the Chairman reported that the issues had previously been reported to the Committee and had received scrutiny by Members.

RESOLVED: that the report be noted.

The briefing comprises:

• Adult Care and Health Risk Register
• Outcome of Shared Lives Inspection

Members and Co-opted Members have been provided with advance copies of the briefing via email.  The briefing is also available on the Council’s website at the following link:

http://cds.bromley.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CId=559&Year=0

Printed copies of the briefing are available on request by contacting the Democratic Services Officer.

The Adult Care and Health PDS Information Briefing comprised two reports:

• Adult Care and Health Risk Register
• Outcome of the Shared Lives Inspection

The Committee extended its congratulations to all the staff involved in the Shared Lives Service on the excellent outcome of the inspection.

RESOLVED that the Information Briefing be noted.

RESOLVED that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business listed below as it was likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The following reports on the Part 2 (exempt from publication) Executive agenda were considered:

The Committee discussed the report and made recommendations to the Executive.

The Committee considered the Part 2 (exempt from publication) report and made a recommendation to the Executive in respect of the award of contract.

The Committee noted the exempt (not for publication) financial information included in the Part 2 report.

The Committee noted the exempt (not for publication) commentary for the Contracts Register.