Agenda item

Report CSD21010

The Committee considered a report setting out matters outstanding from previous meetings and the proposed work plan for 2020/21.

In response to a question, the Director of Adult Social Care advised Members that a summary of the LBB day services workshop would be provide in her update to the Committee, and further details could be circulated after the meeting if required.

The Chairman reminded Members of the Learning Disability report which had been presented at the November 2020 meeting of the Committee. The Council had a contract in place with the Southside Partnership (usually referred to as the Certitude contract) to provide Learning Disability supported living and community-based day and respite services. The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning informed Members that Executive approval had been obtained in November 2019 to extend the contract for a period of up to 2 years from 1^st October 2020 to 30^th September 2022. However, the Council was unable to reach mutual terms to extend the contract as originally intended, and subsequent negotiation resulted in a 6-month extension of the contract to 31^st March 2021.

This reduced contract extension required the Council to review the current service, consult with residents and carers and go to tender to procure new providers in a very short space of time. There were four procurements in train as follows:

a)  Supported Living Services

b)  Residential Respite Service

c)  Day opportunities for residents with complex needs – day centre provision

d)  Community based day opportunities

As it was not possible to align the tendering timetables for the Supported Living Service and Residential Respite Service with the timetable for this meeting, it was proposed to hold a special meeting of the Adult Care and Health PDS Committee to consider the award of these two contracts. It was noted that taking these contract awards to the March 2021 meeting would not leave sufficient time to both award the contract, and put in place the new contractors in time for 1^st April 2021.

Following a brief discussion, Members agreed to a 4.30pm start time for the special meeting of the Adult Care and Health PDS Committee on Wednesday 3^rd February 2021.

A Member noted that when commissioned providers were approached to extend a contract, incidents of demands for substantial cost increases, or no extension being possible, appeared to have become more frequent. The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning said that he was unable to comment on what had happened historically, but that going forward, the Director of Adult Social Care and himself would ensure that this would not be the case.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning advised Members that the original contract was for 5 years, and with the 6-month extension would expire in April 2021. Discussions had been held with Certitude in November 2019, and they agreed in principal to extend the contract by a further two years, and this approach had been agreed by the Council’s Executive. When looking to sign the extension agreement in February / March 2020, the provider introduced terms that the Council were unable to agree to.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.