Agenda item

RESOLVED:

Independent Carers Support

That the award of new contracts based on four geographical lots to Action for Carers Surrey, each contract commencing on 1 April 2017, be approved.

The contracts will be for an initial two year period, with the option to extend for up to two further periods of twelve months.

The geographical lots being:

Lot 1 - Woking, Runnymede and Spelthorne

Lot 2 - Guildford, Waverley and Surrey Heath

Lot 3 - Covering Epsom and Ewell, Banstead*, Mole Valley and Elmbridge

Lot 4 - Area within the boundaries of East Surrey CCG (Reigate, Redhill and Horley* and Tandridge

* The borough of Reigate and Banstead is split between lots 3 and 4 based on the respective boundaries of Surrey Downs and East Surrey CCG

Home Based Breaks for Carers

That the award of new contracts based on two lots to Crossroads Care, each contract commencing on 6 February 2017, be approved.

The contracts will be for an initial two year period, with the option to extend for up to two further periods of twelve months.

The lots being:

Lot 1 - Home Based Breaks for Carers

Lot 2 - End of Life Care

Reasons for Decisions:

The Council has a statutory duty to support carers in case of need, which could be met through a variety of approaches. Following an assessment of several service delivery and procurement options, it was decided that a full competitive tender based on geographic lots was the most appropriate approach in both instances. This model increases the reach of the service, without increasing costs and allows for greater efficiencies through rationalisation of services.

An open, fair and transparent tender process was undertaken for each service. Following a thorough evaluation process two suppliers were selected.  One for the countywide Independent Carers Support and the other for the countywide Home Based Breaks for Carers.

This procurement exercise has been carried out in collaboration with Surrey’s six NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to secure the best supplier(s) to deliver cost effective, high quality services against agreed specifications that will improve the quality of life for carers.

The recommended bidders have demonstrated that they can deliver high quality services expected by Surrey County Council (SCC) and the CCGs and will work with us over the lifetime of the contract to make continuous improvements and add value.

There is strong evidence from national cost modelling, that support to carers helps prevent breakdown of caring situations and avoids far greater cost for the provision of more expensive, more intrusive “care packages”. Based on this calculation an estimated £38.8 million of additional care costs will be prevented over the life of both contracts.

[The decision on this item may be called in by either the Social Care Services Scrutiny Board or the Council Overview Board]

Mrs Kemeny declared a personal interest in the reports relating to the Support Services for Carers contract award (item 9 and 19) because she was closely related to a previous grant recipient and left the meeting for this item.

Prior to the report being introduced by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Wellbeing and Independence, Mrs Fiona White was invited to speak. She made the following points:

·         That the Social Care Services Board had received very little information regarding these two contract awards for support services for carers and that the information that they had received was confidential and not split into Part 1 and 2. [ The Leader agreed to pick this point up outside the meeting.]

·         That existing suppliers of this service had been informed that the last element of their grant would be with held.

·         She requested evidence that the proposed new providers could deliver their services because there was little detail on how the innovative approach, including using modern technology could be achieved, and whether carers could cope with new technology.

The Cabinet Member began his introduction by praising the role of carers in Surrey and referred to paragraph 23 of the report.

He said that, currently the Independent Carers Support Services provided essential advice, one to ones, peer and other external support to Adult carers. The service was currently delivered as 24 individual grant agreements that come to an end on 31 March 2017 and there were both financial and quality efficiency gains to be achieved by rationalising the current offer.

Surrey’s Home Based Breaks for Carers provision provides respite for young and adult carers by allowing them to go on scheduled breaks with the assurance that their loved ones are being supported by competent care workers. The current contract would expire 5 February 2017.

Both proposed contracts supported the corporate aim of promoting wellbeing and provides invaluable support to carers in a preventative way, thus reducing stress and more expensive reactive interventions.

He detailed the timeline leading upto the tendering of the Independent Carers Support contract, which was as follows:

1.         Consultation pre-procurement – 29 February 2016

2.         Initial meeting held with local carers support organisations – 27 April 2016

3.         Counter proposal received from carers support organisations – 30 May 2016

4.         Commissioners met with the Chairs of carers support groups – 2 June 2016

5.         Commissioners meeting with six CCGs re final decision making regarding the recommended model – 8 June 2016

6.         Response to carers organisations issued by Sonya Sellar on behalf og the commissioners – 18 June 2016

7.         Bidders briefing session – 25 July 2016

8.         Date of Dispatch of the OJEU tender notice – 25 July 2016

9.         Issue of invitation to tender – 27 July 2016

10.       Clarification request deadline – 23 August 2016

11.       Tender submission deadline – 6 September 2016

12.       Evaluation of tenders – 8 to 16 September 2016

He also informed Members that he had received correspondence from Elmbridge, Mole Valley and Epsom and Ewell expressing concern about the new contracts and he shared with Cabinet a copy of his response to Epsom and Ewell, which he agreed to send to Mrs White.

In addressing the point raised by Mrs White, he confirmed the existing organisations would continue to be paid until the end of the grant period.

Finally, he drew attention to the Equality Impact Assessments attached as Annexes to the report.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families Wellbeing said that the County Council recognised that some of these services were provided to children and their families.

RESOLVED:

Independent Carers Support

That the award of new contracts based on four geographical lots to Action for Carers Surrey, each contract commencing on 1 April 2017, be approved.

The contracts will be for an initial two year period, with the option to extend for up to two further periods of twelve months.

The geographical lots being:

Lot 1 - Woking, Runnymede and Spelthorne

Lot 2 - Guildford, Waverley and Surrey Heath

Lot 3 - Covering Epsom and Ewell, Banstead*, Mole Valley and Elmbridge

Lot 4 - Area within the boundaries of East Surrey CCG (Reigate, Redhill and Horley* and Tandridge

* The borough of Reigate and Banstead is split between lots 3 and 4 based on the respective boundaries of Surrey Downs and East Surrey CCG

Home Based Breaks for Carers

That the award of new contracts based on two lots to Crossroads Care, each contract commencing on 6 February 2017, be approved.

The contracts will be for an initial two year period, with the option to extend for up to two further periods of twelve months.

The lots being:

Lot 1 - Home Based Breaks for Carers

Lot 2 - End of Life Care

Reasons for Decisions:

The Council has a statutory duty to support carers in case of need, which could be met through a variety of approaches. Following an assessment of several service delivery and procurement options, it was decided that a full competitive tender based on geographic lots was the most appropriate approach in both instances. This model increases the reach of the service, without increasing costs and allows for greater efficiencies through rationalisation of services.

An open, fair and transparent tender process was undertaken for each service. Following a thorough evaluation process two suppliers were selected.  One for the countywide Independent Carers Support and the other for the countywide Home Based Breaks for Carers.

This procurement exercise has been carried out in collaboration with Surrey’s six NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to secure the best supplier(s) to deliver cost effective, high quality services against agreed specifications that will improve the quality of life for carers.

The recommended bidders have demonstrated that they can deliver high quality services expected by Surrey County Council (SCC) and the CCGs and will work with us over the lifetime of the contract to make continuous improvements and add value.

There is strong evidence from national cost modelling, that support to carers helps prevent breakdown of caring situations and avoids far greater cost for the provision of more expensive, more intrusive “care packages”. Based on this calculation an estimated £38.8 million of additional care costs will be prevented over the life of both contracts.