Purpose

To seek approval from the Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding and Early Years for the re-purposing of a Council owned property at 6-8 Barnwood Road, to provide a registered children’s home (2 beds) and a linked onsite accommodation pod (1 bed).

The provision will provide placements for up to 3 children who require a period in residential care, including the provision of integrated, intensive support services, to enable them to progress to a familial setting, in line with their permanence plan.

The provision at Barnwood is an integral element within the Sufficiency Strategy Home@theHeart and forms part of wider programme of capital developments to be delivered over the next 2 years. Accommodation and support services for children at the Barnwood site will be delivered by directly recruited management and staffing.

Decision

In coming to this decision I have given due and full regard to the requirements of the public sector equality duty contained in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (“the Act”) by reference to the law itself and also the relevant Equality Impact Assessment, which was prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Act.

Having fully considered all the available information, I have decided to reject the alternative options and take the recommended decision to:

1. 1.     Approve the repurposing of the Council owned property at 6- 8 Barnwood Road (currently vacant) to provide a registered children’s home and linked accommodation pod, for up to 3 children who require a period in residential care as part of their longer-term permanence planning.
2. 2.     Ratify a decision taken by the previous Director of Children’s Services and Assistant Director of Integrated Commissioning to allocate and spend £430k from GCC capital funding to meet a proportion of the £996k cost of refurbishment and remodelling works at the 6-8 Barnwood Road property.
3. Delegate authority to the Assistant Director for Asset Management and Property Services (AMPS) in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Change to:

a)    conduct a competitive procurement process under the Council’s Major Project Framework Agreement (or its successor) in respect of a call-off contract for the supply of the required refurbishment and remodelling work and the construction of a linked accommodation pod; and

b)    award such contract to the preferred tenderer.

1. 4.     Delegate authority to the Executive Director of Children’s Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding and Early Years to establish and register the provision under which accommodation and support services shall be delivered by staff who are recruited and employed by the council under an in-house management and staffing model.

For the reasons set out in the report.