Agenda item

Report CS16031

The Portfolio Holder presented a report outlining a gateway review undertaken of services for the blind and partially sighted which was currently delivered by the Kent Association for the Blind via a contract which would expire on 30^th June 2016.

Kent Association for the Blind was a voluntary sector organisation for the provision of services for people with a visual impairment and a registered charity which provided support to adults and children who had a visual impairment across Bromley.  There had been a long standing partnership between the Local Authority and Kent Association for the Blind for the provision of services for people with a visual impairment which included specialist statutory needs, assessments and rehabilitation planning, as well as maintaining the statutory register for people who were blind and partially sighted.  The core activities within the contract included provision of rehabilitation, equipment, and mobility training, as well as ensuring access to services and information, advice and guidance.  As a long established voluntary sector organisation, the range and scope of the services provided by Kent Association for the Blind had increased over the years, and included additional services assessed as being worth in excess of £100k per annum to Bromley service users, such as the provision of the Eye Clinic Liaison Officers, assistive technology and social and peer support.

In reviewing the service provision, it had been identified that Kent Association for the Blind was providing an effective and efficient service in all areas of the contract.  A recent ‘soft’ market testing exercise had established that there were nine voluntary organisations around London which provided a range of services for people who are blind and partially sighted, but that none of these services were comparable in range or extent to those provided by Kent Association for the Blind, and none included specialist statutory assessment or the maintenance of the sight register which was carried out by in-house employees in many local authorities.  The value of the Kent Association for the Blind contract was equivalent to the cost of 2.5 care managers, and the provision of advice and guidance by Kent Association for the Blind also diverted over 300 people per year from the Council’s Early Intervention Service.  It was proposed that a contract for the provision of services for the blind and partially sighted be awarded to Kent Association for the Blind from 1^st July 2016 for a period of two years with an optional extension of one year, with a three month break clause built into the new contract which would allow the Local Authority to terminate the contract should circumstances change.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to agree that a contract for the provision of services for the blind and partially sighted be awarded to Kent Association for the Blind from 1^st July 2016 for a period of two years with an optional extension of one year, with authority to extend the contract delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Care Services.