This was an extraordinary meeting of the Procurement Board, held to discuss the future of Carers Support Services in Hackney. The only item on the agenda was the letting of a contract to manage these services.

Award of contract for the delivery of the Carers Support Service for Unpaid Adult Carers

The board intended to decide whether to award the contract for the new Carers Support Service to one of four bidders. The total value of the contract was £952,917 (excluding VAT), for a three year term with the option to extend it for a further two years. This decision was made necessary by the expiry of the previous contract on 31 March 2025.

The new service was to be delivered by a single provider, and included the following elements:

• Information, advice and signposting
• Initial assessments/screening
• Outreach / early identification
• Emergency signposting
• Carers groups and peer support
• Carers contingency planning

It did not include carrying out statutory carers assessments. These were to remain the responsibility of Hackney Council and the East London Foundation Trust. The report identifies that there are 19,692 unpaid carers in Hackney, who are saving the council an estimated £54,632,203.70 per year.

The report recommending a preferred bidder describes the three alternative options that were considered for the service, and why they were rejected:

10.1 The following 3 options were previously considered and rejected for the future of the Carers Support Services for Unpaid Carers in the borough: ● Alternative Option 1: The External Provider undertakes the carers assessment function and support planning The key risk of this model is the external provider(s) not having the capacity to meet statutory duties and the reputational risk of this to LBH. ● Alternative Option 2: Deliver the service in-house With existing delays to ASC undertaking statutory carers assessments, the key risk of this approach is that it will pose capacity challenges, meaning in-house teams are unable to meet demands of carers and the service in a timely way. LBH would also need to build trust with carers. ● Alternative Option 3: Do Nothing / Decommission This would mean that the Council no longer dedicates resources to fund a carers support service. The key risk here is that LBH would fail to meet its statutory duty to carers under The Care Act (2014).

The report describes the four bidders' proposals, and why one was preferred:

11.2 Reason for Recommendation The tender panel recommends that Provider B is awarded the contract for the Carers Support Service for Unpaid Adult Carers. Provider B was the highest overall scoring in terms of quality and price and demonstrated that they could meet the full requirements of the specification in all areas. In terms of the individual quality criteria, Provider B was the highest scoring for service delivery, service and quality outcomes, mobilisation and transition, partnership working, and social value and sustainability. The panel felt they would meet the needs of unpaid adult carers and their submission recognised the issues and the importance of delivering initiatives that would benefit unpaid carers in the borough. [...] The panel noted that Provider B’s submission also met the following Council objectives; ● Meets Needs and Objectives as identified in Business Case ● Measurable Benefits, particularly in relation to any efficiency savings and assessment of Value for Money (by remaining within the budget requirements for the life of the contract) ● TUPE (confirmation of compliance to work with existing provider and council) ● London Living Wage consideration (Confirmation of being an LLW provider)

The report describes the process for letting the contract, which is governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The report explains that although the new Procurement Act 2023 comes into force on 24 February 2025, this contract will continue to be regulated under the 2015 regulations. The report notes that the procurement of these services involved publishing a Find a Tender notice.

The report describes the key performance indicators that will be used to measure the performance of the contract. These include the number of referrals, the time taken to contact carers, and the number of carers supported to develop an emergency plan. The report also notes that the contract will be managed by Hackney Council's Adults Social Care Commissioning team.

The meeting also received an update on the progress of the Hackney Carers Strategy, which was due to be published in September 2024.

This summary is based on the documents provided for the meeting, and does not include any information about what was actually said or decided at the meeting.