Agenda item

1.  Agreed to the award of contracts to 9 suppliers for the provision of domiciliary care.  This will be to suppliers 1,9,10,13,15,16,19, 22 and 24. Full details were contained at Exempt Appendix A.

2.  Agreed to the issuing of contract extensions and variations to existing tranche 1 providers who did not bid for new contracts, for a six month period until16 January 2023.  This would enable providers to continue to work with up to 155 service users whilst alternative arrangements are put in place, but not to take on new referrals

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3.  Noted that lessons learned from the tendering process relating to tranche 1 would be built into arrangements concerning the tendering process for tranche 2 .

4.  Delegated authority to the Executive Director for People (Adults) in consultation with the Lead Member for Public Health and Social Care to have oversight of the mobilisation period and to be kept apprised of changes in the local adult social care market.

The Lead Member for Social Care & Public Health introduced a report which sought  approval to award contracts to 9 suppliers of domiciliary care which had been tendered by competitive process via the Council’s Adult Social Care Dynamic Purchasing System.  This would ensure a sufficiency of supply once the first tranche of existing contracts expired in July 2022.

In March 2022, the Cabinet had approved the re-tendering of two tranches of domiciliary care contract, which provided vital care enabling individuals with assessed care and support needs to remain living at home.  The proposed award to 9 suppliers in the first tranche was an increase on the current number of 6.

The Cabinet considered and noted the Part II appendices without disclosing any exempt information.

Lead Members agreed the contract awards and discussed the lessons learned ahead of the second tranche of procurement.  The main issues identified were mainly around communication and not being able to navigate the portal and the steps being taken to address these issues were summarised.  The Cabinet supported to understand the blockages and assist potential suppliers with the procurement process to secure the best and most diverse providers available.  It was good practice to provide training and ensure providers details in the procurement portal were up to date.  Officers assured Cabinet that the Council had good coverage of different language speakers and this would be improved under the new contracts.

The wider market challenges were discussed and these included recruitment and retention and rising cost pressures and inflation.   The work providers were doing with the Council to address these issues were noted.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Cabinet approved the recommendations.

Resolved -

(a)  Agreed to the award of contracts to 9 suppliers for the provision of domiciliary care.  This will be to suppliers 1,9,10,13,15,16,19, 22 and 24. Full details were contained at Exempt Appendix A.

(b)  Agreed to the issuing of contract extensions and variations to existing tranche 1 providers who did not bid for new contracts, for a six month period until16 January 2023.  This would enable providers to continue to work with up to 155 service users whilst alternative arrangements are put in place, but not to take on new referrals.

(c)  Noted that lessons learned from the tendering process relating to tranche 1 would be built into arrangements concerning the tendering process for tranche 2 .

(d)  Delegated authority to the Executive Director for People (Adults) in consultation with the Lead Member for Social Care and Public Health to have oversight of the mobilisation period and to be kept apprised of changes in the local adult social care market.