Decision details

Commissioners have developed a new commissioning approach to purchasing residential and nursing care home placements that is consistent with the Council’s published commissioning intentions for care homes.

The Cabinet Member agrees to:

1)  Give an approval to officers to develop the procurement strategy & documentation and undertake procurement processes for both the initial and longer term objectives of the project. 

2)  Delegate authority for the outcome of procurement processes and any subsequent contract award decisions, to the Director of Integrated Health & Care Commissioning, subject to Joint Commissioning Committee reviewing detail of the proposed framework prior to procurement.

Approving these recommendations will ensure that the Council and CCG are able to secure residential and care home services in a timely, compliant fashion whilst also being able to work with providers to develop future opportunities.

Continue with current arrangements or undertake individual procurements for each block contract opportunity.

Under current systems, applying the Contract Standing Orders to care services is cumbersome, time-consuming and increases risk to securing services in a timely, legally compliant manner.  It is also more challenging to ensure robust contract management and oversight of performance outcomes.

Any approach considered must be compliant with the Council’s Contract Standing Orders established process for entering into contracts and the Public Contracts Regulations (2015) Light Touch regime which offers flexibility for certain services, including care and health services. The core principles of openness, transparency and equal treatment will apply.

A framework is considered to be the best way to secure a compliant and effective means of commissioning these services. Within the flexibility offered by the Light Touch regime, a process and model can be developed that meets the particular needs of the services. There are also no minimum timescales to be applied to the procurement process.