Agenda item

Following the options appraisal by the Council and Clinical Commissioning Group, decisions were taken not to extend the contract term for the three-year period with HCRG Care Group for the delivery of Community Services in B&NES.  The decision not to exercise the extension now requires a decision to be made to progress the preferred option for the service delivery model for Adult Social Care services. 

Cllr Alison Born introduced the report and made the following statement:

“The work outlined in this paper stems from the decision taken on 26^th May 2022, not to extend the HCRG Care Group contract, resulting in the existing community services contract for health, social care and public health services coming to an end on 31st March 2024.

Cabinet has previously been appraised of the joint programme of work that is underway to manage the transition, with workstreams led by the Integrated Care Board, Public Health and by our director of Adult Social Care.

This paper focuses on the adult social care element of that work and examines 3 potential options for future provision of both the statutory social care functions and services for adults with learning disabilities.

The options include:

·  Re-commissioning service delivery for B&NES

·  In-sourcing service delivery i.e., bringing social care staff back in-house

·  Setting up a new organisation to deliver services in B&NES

The clear recommendation is that we in-source all adult social care services. This will bring us in line with the vast majority of local authorities and will give us more control of our service provision.

We know from the recent experience of bringing some residential, nursing and extra care housing services back in house that this is likely to receive support from the workforce. It should help to improve recruitment in the current highly competitive job market.

However, it also represents a significant amount of work, and we need to give clear authority for the Director of Adult Social Care to work closely with HCRG Care Group on the transition.

There is a robust process in place to oversee this work programme, risks have been identified and are being managed I am in receipt of monthly progress reports and a further joint paper will come back to Cabinet in February 2023.

I propose that Cabinet supports the recommendations in this report.”

Cllr Dine Romero seconded the motion and made the following statement:

“Recently I had a member of staff shout out to me from a window of a care home how happy they were that they had come back to the council.

Clearly staff are happier working for the council rather than alternative employers, they believe they can give a better service to those in their care, and at the end of the day it is those residents who need to be at the centre of service delivery.

We know that employment security is very important in keeping staff in this very challenging field of work. Working for the council gives staff greater job security, as well as greater pride in the work they do. Again, this will be better for residents knowing their own carers will the same from day to day.”

Cllr Vic Pritchard stated that the Council should be prudent and should not dismiss the HCRG contract in total.  Parts of the contract could be retained.  He felt that it was not prudent to use Adult Social Care reserves.  He asked the Cabinet to work closely with the Scrutiny Panel on this issue.

Cllr Born pointed out that the proposed work stems from the decision not to extend the contract, which was a decision made by both the Council and the NHS.

RESOLVED (unanimously):

(1)  To agree to the recommendation in the Strategic Outline Case to proceed to Outline and Final Business Case with the insourcing of Adult Social Care Services as detailed in the contract with HCRG Care Group as PD01 - Statutory Adult Social Work and SD43 - Adults with Learning Disabilities.

(2)  To delegate responsibility for insourcing PD01 and SD43 to the Director of Adult Social Services in consultation with the lead Cabinet member for Adult Social Services and the Chief Financial Officer subject to the sign-off of the Outline and Final Business Cases.