Agenda item

To follow

Report ACH21-030

The Committee considered a report seeking approval to proceed to procurement of the Primary and Secondary Intervention Service (PSIS) against an updated service specification. The current contract expires on 30^th September 2022 and the option to extend the contract have already been exercised. The current contract had an estimated annual value of £2.5m with an estimated cumulative allocation over the life of the contract (3 years with an option to extend for a further 2 years) of £12.7m.

The proposed contract would have an estimated value of £18.3m with the difference mainly accounted for by the proposal to have a 5-year contract plus 2-year option to extend the contract and service changes detailed. This service is currently delivered by Bromley Third Sector Enterprise and provides integrated prevention and early intervention services across health and social care for the residents of Bromley. The service is jointly commissioned by the London Borough of Bromley (LBB) and South East London Clinical Commissioning Group (Bromley) with LBB as the lead commissioner for the service. The Gateway 0 Report (ACH 19015) presented to the Adult Care and Health PDS in March 2021 secured approval for commissioners to conduct a Soft Market Test to inform the procurement options for this service. Following the completion of the soft market test in May, the Gateway 1 Report requested Adult Care and Health Pre-Decision Scrutiny to note the proposed changes to the service; the service procurement options; the recommendations with regards to a preferred procurement option going forward; and service outline.

In response to questions, the Integrated Strategic Commissioner informed Members that there was as annual demand for this service from around 12,000 residents. Around 6,000 of these were triaged through the Single Point of Access (SPA) and the remainder were signposted through other specialist services. With regards to the pricing structure, tenders would be awarded based on price (60%) and how bidders had answered and evidenced responses against award criteria (40%) as per the requirement for procurement of this kind. The procurement process would involve a two-stage tender process. The first stage was a Selection Questionnaire process designed to ensure that all prospective bidders met the required provider standards to be able to bid for the service and requested confirmation that they could adhere to the pricing structure detailed. If successful, the second stage was to submit a detailed invitation to tender including demonstrating how they would deliver the outcomes specified.

A Member noted that in 2016 only existing charities had provided this triage service – it was pleasing to see that the list of providers had expanded, and she enquired if the reasons for this were known. The Integrated Strategic Commissioner said that his opinion was that this had been aided by the Better Care Fund (BCF) integrated working and there was now more competition and expertise in the market. During the Soft Market Testing 17 different providers had completed an expression of interest. The service itself had been successful and had taken the opportunity to innovate.

A Member asked for further information regarding the KPIs for the contract and suggested that the Council’s target of being carbon neutral by 2029 should be included in its quality aspects. The Integrated Strategic Commissioner advised that the contracts KPIs were based on the performance metrics of the BCF:

-  Reducing non-elective admissions;

-  Reducing delayed transfers of care (DTOCs):

-  Ensuring the reduction in permanent admissions to residential care; and

-  Reducing the proportion of older people who were still at home 91 days after discharge from hospital into reablement/rehabilitation services.

The other key outcomes listed in section three of the report would also be brought into the new service, plus key outcomes and learning around loneliness and social isolation and the digital offer and provision. Further work on this would continue until the service went out to tender and it was agreed that the Integrated Strategic Commissioner would check if reference was made to the Council’s carbon neutral target.

Councillor Fawthrop proposed that the following recommendation should be made to the Executive:

That the CPI inflation rates be used in any calculations.

The motion was seconded by Councillor Dunn and carried.

The Assistant Director for Integrated Commissioning highlighted that CPI was the standard used, however a sub clause would be required as other

legislative changes that impacted on contract cost may also need to be considered.

RESOLVED: that the Executive be recommended to:

i.)  approve proceeding to procurement as detailed in sections 4.3 and 6 of the report.

ii.)  approve commissioners conducting an open tender process for the PSIS Service for a contract planned to commence on the 1^st October 2022 for a period of 5 years with the option to extend for a further 2 years at an estimated annual value of £2.6m (whole life value of £18.3m).

iii.)  In relation to the annual inflationary uplift for the forthcoming new contract, it is recommended that the contract price shall increase or decrease annually on each 1^st April by the same percentage increase or decrease (if any) as that between the published UK Consumer Price Index figure for the previous February and the that same figure but as published 12 months previously to that figure.