Agenda item

Councillor Steven Kelly (Cabinet Member for Individuals) introduced the report

Approval was sought for the award of a five-year contract, following a competitive tender process, for the provision of reablement services to adults, commencing 1 November 2012. 

The report set out the background and procurement process for the selection of the provider.

Tenders had been received from two bidders, referred to in these minutes as Bidder A and Bidder B.  However, Bidder B had withdrawn from the tender process. The Bidders are identified in the Appendix to these minutes, which is exempt and not available to the press or public.

Reasons for the decision:

There were clear policy objectives that had been set both nationally and locally for prevention, reablement and independence. The externalisation of the reablement service was intended to contribute to the implementation of these strategies by ensuring that reablement was available to a greater number of people, thereby increasing the independence and improving the health and wellbeing of adults in Havering. 

Increasing numbers of people, particularly older people, would require a service in the future, placing significant increased pressure on budgets.

Other options considered:

The following options had been considered:

Retention of the existing service:

·        The primary disadvantage of this would be that achievement of the required level of savings would be highly unlikely

·        In 2011 a staffing and service restructure was implemented, which realised savings contributing towards the achievement of MTFS savings of £750k per annum.  However, there was no further scope to reduce costs internally

Undertaking a phased externalisation:

·        Based on the current level of staff turnover (10%), it was unlikely that sufficient staff would choose to leave the service to achieve the required amount of savings within the required timescales

·        Corporate support and infrastructure e.g. management, payroll, HR, Finance etc. would still be required

Externalising partially:  

The in-house service had been unable to meet all of the demand for re-ablement provision. Externalisation of the work to meet demand had therefore been considered. This would have enabled the Council to monitor external costs and quality before reviewing whether the entire service should be re-provided. However, it had not been possible to identify a local provider able to take on this work. Furthermore, it would not contribute directly to the required savings, and therefore wider action had been required.

Assurance was given that the new approach was unrelated to issues of discharge from hospital, although it would assist in bridging the gap between discharge and the availability of long-term care arrangements.

Cabinet agreed:

1          To approve the award of the contract to Bidder A for a period of five years, for the delivery of a guaranteed block of 1000 hours per week, and up to an additional 250 hours per week as required.

2          That all necessary action be taken by the Council and by Bidder A, including all actions and communication in relation to the transfer of staff under TUPE, to enable the implementation of the contract from 1 November 2012.