Purpose

1. A direct award
of a new contract to West London NHS Trust for a period of 2 years
via an ICMD as a pilot, is required to ensure the Council can
fulfil its statutory duties to children with additional needs. This
contract will be a Pilot contract which will provide additional
time to re-design and re-procure a new service following the whilst
at the same time seeking to potentially integrate this contract
with the current Ealing ICB contract to improve and strengthen the
service.
2. Following the conclusion of the pilot period, to seek a further
authority to procure a new contract via competitive tender similar
to the authority that was approved in a previous ICMD in July 2022,
but with a reduced contract term from the previously approved 7
years and 7-months now to 5 years and 5-months. it is also possible
to note that there may be a potential option to merge the Ealing
local authority contract with the Ealing ICB contract.

Content

That, the Cabinet Member for a Fairer
Start:
 

Authorised
a 2-year pilot project with the existing service provider, via a
direct award of a contract to West London NHS Trust, to develop a
new service delivery model and undertake an independent audit of
assessment, policy and
procedures.

 

Pursuant
to (i), authorised a direct award of
the contract for the pilot project to West London NHS Trust for a
period of 2 years commencing from 1st October 2023 to 30th
September 2025.

 

Authorised
the Strategic Director of Children and Families to invite and
evaluate tenders for a contract for the provision of
Children’s Community Health Services commencing from 1st
October 2025 for a period of 5 years 7 months with an optional
extension of 1 year if required, upon the expiry of the direct
award funded through existing budgets split between Dedicated
Schools Grant (92.96%), Public Health Grant (4.56%) and General
Fund (2.49%). The indicative whole life total value of the
contract, including the extension period, was approximately
£22.776m. 

 

Authorised
the Strategic Director of Children’s Services in consultation
with the Strategic Director for Resources, for the funding
considerations noted below. This was subject to affordability
considerations and funding being available for the relevant years
and approved via Schools Forum for the DSG elements and the
Council’s annual budget process for the General Fund and
Public Health Grant.  The indicative
value was funded by the percentages as noted in the previous
paragraph and the flexi contract element (£1.183m in year 1)
via Dedicated Schools Grant.

 

Delegated
authority to the Strategic Director of Children’s Services
upon completion of the tender process to award the contract to the
most economically advantageous tender in line with the evaluation
criteria if a suitable tender was received.