Agenda item

Decision on the Change of Route to Market For Two Extra Care Housing Sites

Meeting of Cabinet, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 2.00 pm (Item 111/20)
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Decision:

RESOLVED:

1. That the recommended approach (Option 1) for the delivery of Extra Care Housing at the former Brockhurst Care Home and former Pinehurst Resource Centre sites be approved. The approach recommended is to tender for a development and housing management strategic partner(s) for Extra Care Housing schemes on Council owned land on a design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) basis with up to a 125 year lease.

2. That grants approval to procure in order to enable a full tender process to identify an Extra Care Housing development and housing management strategic partner(s) for the former Brockhurst Care Home and former Pinehurst Resource Centre sites set out in this paper be approved.

3. Work to review the feasibility of further sites owned by the Council for the development of Extra Care Housing be approved.

Reasons for Decisions:

The development of Extra Care Housing on the two sites set out in this paper will represent a substantial contribution towards the Council’s strategic objective to expand affordable Extra Care Housing provision by 2030.

The development of Extra Care Housing through this delivery model is in line with previous decisions made by Cabinet. In October 2019 Cabinet agreed to identify a strategic partner for the development and housing management of Extra Care Housing at the former Pond Meadow School site through a tender process.

This is consistent with our ASC vision for development of Extra Care Housing, which has been clearly communicated through market and stakeholder engagement.

Through developing Extra Care Housing via this delivery model, the Council will have evidence and experience with which to benchmark future developments against and make informed decisions regarding future sites and approaches.

The Council received positive feedback following its market engagement on the tender for Extra Care Housing at the former Pond Meadow School site. In their feedback, a number of providers sought clarification on whether further sites will be offered to the market through a tender.

A tender will be published in the Summer 2020 for an Extra Care Housing development and housing management strategic partner at the former Pond Meadow School site. This process will provide the Council with learning and a template to inform any future tenders for further Extra Care Housing schemes.

The financial case that underpins the recommended delivery model for these sites is set out in the Part 2 paper.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Adults and Health Select Committee]

Minutes:

The report was introduced by the Cabinet Member Adult Social Care and Public Health who explained that the report sets out Surrey County Council’s necessary and recommended change of delivery approach for two Council owned sites; the former Pinehurst Resource Centre (Camberley) and the former Brockhurst Care Home (Ottershaw). She explained that on 20 July 2020, the Council had gone live with the Pond Meadow (Guildford) tender. This had proven more difficult with the Pinehurst Resource Centre and Brockhurst Care Home and hence a decision to bring a paper to Cabinet to change the route to market for these two sites. There is a concern around the pace of delivery for the ambitious programme and the Cabinet Member urged colleagues to approve the recommendations with a view for the tenders for both sites to go live in a few weeks.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for People echoed what the Cabinet Member stated around the need to accelerate the pace for the programme . Independent living was the future for the council and it was important to expedite this programme. The security and assurance provided to residents in extra care and independent living housing was greatly supported by members.