Agenda item

1.         That the Occupational Therapy service to support education, learning and training for children and young people in Surrey be jointly commissioned by Surrey County Council and Surrey’s six Clinical Commissioning Groups from April 2017.

2.         That the procurement of the Council funded Occupational Therapy service forms part of the Community Health Services procurement process, as agreed at 24 November 2015 Cabinet meeting for Health Visiting and School Nursing, Parent Infant Mental Health and CAMHS Community Nurses. 

3.         That in the light of the addition of Occupational Therapy to the Community Health Services procurement process, that the delegation of decision-making be extended to the Strategic Director of Children, Schools and Families.

4.         That the Strategic Director for Adult Social Care and Public Health, the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health and the Head of Procurement will represent this service area at the Committee in Common (this enables all organisations involved in the procurement process to make joint decisions).

Reasons for Decisions:

A review by the College of Occupational Therapists (2015) recommended joint commissioning of this service.

A single provider for all children’s community health services will facilitate easier access for users and provide benefits around information sharing and reducing on-costs (e.g. management and premises) and clear co-ordination of health care provision.

The occupational therapy workforce is small and can have difficulties in recruitment and retention that would be exacerbated by separate procurements.

The planning of the community health services procurement has already started; with governance and funding frameworks that are unlikely to pose any additional costs to Surrey County Council.

A single tender process would benefit both commissioners and potential providers.

Integrated community health service provision will facilitate better and seamless multi-health professional work; particularly for differential diagnostics, assessments of complex needs and intervention for children with disabilities.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by either the Council Overview Board or the Education and Skills Scrutiny Board]

The Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement introduced the report and said that the joint commissioning of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services was a key strategy for Surrey County Council and its partners to improve outcomes for children, young people and families in Surrey.

The contracts for the current occupational therapy service for children and young people would end in March 2017 and the Cabinet were asked to approve that from April 2017, the service would be jointly commissioned with the six Surrey Clinical Commissioning Groups and therefore formed part of the Community Health Services procurement process.

The recommendations should be considered alongside recommendations relating to the procurement process for Community Health Services approved by Cabinet on 24 November 2015.

She considered that a single provider for all children’s Community Health Services was the best way forward and that the planning had already started. She drew attention to the service principles set out in paragraph 6 of the report and also the financial and value for money implications, set out in paragraph 21 of the report.

She was also pleased to report that the new service specification would include statutory provision, which may be detailed in Education, Health and Care Plans for 19-25 year olds, which had not been included previously, as detailed in the Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA).

Other Members made the following points:

·         That the total annual value of the Community Services procurement was very large – approximately £92m

·         Joined up services were the way forward

·         This was a focussed approach, with an emphasis on delivering realistic outcomes

·         The EIA set out the positive outcomes for those people who received the services

·         This approach was a big step forward for those parents wishing to access Occupational Therapy services for their children

·         This was an important report which addressed two of the County Council’s corporate priorities and was also an important cultural change for the organisation.

RESOLVED:

1.         That the Occupational Therapy service to support education, learning and training for children and young people in Surrey be jointly commissioned by Surrey County Council and Surrey’s six Clinical Commissioning Groups from April 2017.

2.         That the procurement of the Council funded Occupational Therapy service forms part of the Community Health Services procurement process, as agreed at 24 November 2015 Cabinet meeting for Health Visiting and School Nursing, Parent Infant Mental Health and CAMHS Community Nurses. 

3.         That in the light of the addition of Occupational Therapy to the Community Health Services procurement process, that the delegation of decision-making be extended to the Strategic Director of Children, Schools and Families.

4.         That the Strategic Director for Adult Social Care and Public Health, the Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Health and the Head of Procurement will represent this service area at the Committee in Common (this enables all organisations involved in the procurement process to make joint decisions).

Reasons for Decisions:

A review by the College of Occupational Therapists (2015) recommended joint commissioning of this service.

A single provider for all children’s community health services will facilitate easier access for users and provide benefits around information sharing and reducing on-costs (e.g. management and premises) and clear co-ordination of health care provision.

The occupational therapy workforce is small and can have difficulties in recruitment and retention that would be exacerbated by separate procurements.

The planning of the community health services procurement has already started; with governance and funding frameworks that are unlikely to pose any additional costs to Surrey County Council.

A single tender process would benefit both commissioners and potential providers.

Integrated community health service provision will facilitate better and seamless multi-health professional work; particularly for differential diagnostics, assessments of complex needs and intervention for children with disabilities.