Councillors and committees

Agenda item

Procurement Process for Community Health Services

Decision:

1.         That a procurement process with the NHS for Health Visiting, School Nursing, Parent Infant Mental Health and CAHMS Community Nurses be approved and include these within the Associate Commissioner arrangement between Surrey County Council and the six Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Surrey, as set out in paragraphs 9 and 10 of the submitted report. The process will be led by North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group with the Council as a key partner.

2.         That approval be granted to council officers to negotiate contract extensions with East Surrey CCG and First Community Health and Care for the provision of Health Visiting and School Nursing services.

3.         That the award of new contracts with each of the Community Health Service providers for the provision of CAMHS Community Nursing and Parent Infant Mental Health Services, from 1 April 2015 to the earliest date possible that can be agreed with health partners, be approved.

4.       That delegation of the decision making authority to the Strategic Director in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health and the Head of Procurement to sit on the Committee in Common, to be involved in the determination of the procurement and tendering process, including timeframes, and to award the contracts for the above services be approved.

 

Reasons for Decisions:

 

Commissioning and procuring NHS and public health services jointly will help to provide a seamless service for users and carers and reflects the synergies that exist between the services commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Groups and the Council. Whilst North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group will lead the process the Council is a key partner due to the services included in the procurement.

 

Delegating decision making authority to the Strategic Director in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health and Head of Procurement, as part of a Committee in Common will allow for decisions on the procurement of Community Health Services in Surrey, to be made collectively with Clinical Commissioning Groups in line with the procurement time frames. All key decisions in the procurement process will follow the County Council’s due process, and where required will be reported back or brought to the Cabinet for decision. 

 

Aligning the timeframes for the commissioning and procurement of these services will address the issue of current contract expiry for the CAMHS Community Nurse Services and Parent Infant Mental Health Services delivered by the three Community Health Providers. It will also reduce the need to go out to market on multiple occasions.

 

[The decision on this item may be called in by the Social Care Services Scrutiny Board or the Wellbeing and Health Scrutiny Board]

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health said that this report outlined the commissioning and procurement process for Community Health Services that was taking place across Surrey. The final contract award was anticipated to take place in August 2016 and would include services that were commissioned by the Council. There were a number of recommendations for Cabinet to approve to progress with the procurement of these services.

 

She drew attention to proposed revised recommendations (3) and (4):

 

Recommendation 3 – deleting ‘ 31 March 2017’ and replacing it with ‘the earliest date possible that can be agreed with health partners’

 

Recommendation 4 – adding in ‘including timeframes’ after ‘procurement tendering process...’

 

Finally, she asked Cabinet to note that a ‘Committee in Common’ would be established – this would allow for procurement timeframes to be met whilst each organisation involved in the Community Health Services procurement retained its own decision making authority.

 

The Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement confirmed that she support the recommendations and drew attention to Annex A of the report which listed the services currently being considered within the Community Health Services procurement process.

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.         That a procurement process with the NHS for Health Visiting, School Nursing, Parent Infant Mental Health and CAHMS Community Nurses be approved and include these within the Associate Commissioner arrangement between Surrey County Council and the six Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in Surrey, as set out in paragraphs 9 and 10 of the submitted report. The process will be led by North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group with the Council as a key partner.

2.         That approval be granted to council officers to negotiate contract extensions with East Surrey CCG and First Community Health and Care for the provision of Health Visiting and School Nursing services.

3.         That the award of new contracts with each of the Community Health Service providers for the provision of CAMHS Community Nursing and Parent Infant Mental Health Services, from 1 April 2015 to the earliest date possible that can be agreed with health partners, be approved.

4.       That delegation of the decision making authority to the Strategic Director in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health and the Head of Procurement to sit on the Committee in Common, to be involved in the determination of the procurement and tendering process, including timeframes, and to award the contracts for the above services be approved.

 

Reasons for Decisions:

 

Commissioning and procuring NHS and public health services jointly will help to provide a seamless service for users and carers and reflects the synergies that exist between the services commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Groups and the Council. Whilst North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group will lead the process the Council is a key partner due to the services included in the procurement.

 

Delegating decision making authority to the Strategic Director in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health and Head of Procurement, as part of a Committee in Common will allow for decisions on the procurement of Community Health Services in Surrey, to be made collectively with Clinical Commissioning Groups in line with the procurement time frames. All key decisions in the procurement process will follow the County Council’s due process, and where required will be reported back or brought to the Cabinet for decision. 

 

Aligning the timeframes for the commissioning and procurement of these services will address the issue of current contract expiry for the CAMHS Community Nurse Services and Parent Infant Mental Health Services delivered by the three Community Health Providers. It will also reduce the need to go out to market on multiple occasions.

Supporting documents: