Purpose

Approval to recommission and procure the Integrated Children's Occupational Therapy service

Decision

RESOLVED:

To approve the procurement of an Integrated Children’s Occupational Therapy service via a competitive tender process using the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) for health services. The total value of the core contract will be up to £4,766,122 (including VAT) over a maximum of 5 (3+1+1) years.

Reasons For Decision

Options Appraisal 

1. An insourcing/outsourcing options appraisal has been developed and attached as Appendix 1. Insourcing is not seen as the recommended option due partly to higher cost but also in relation to other elements discussed at length in the insourcing/outsourcing options appraisal document.
2. The preferred option is to jointly commission a service with NEL ICB with the contingency and second recommended option being to recommission a OT service with an LBH-only arrangement as described in Section 4 (preferred option). Other considered and rejected options are included in Section 5 (Alternative options considered and rejected).

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

1. Do nothing: There is no provision in place for OT from 1st April 2027. Doing nothing would mean contracts expiring without a continued offer of OT services for children and young people which would breach the Council’s statutory obligations. There would also be no mechanism to deliver the Experts At Hand requirements set out in the Council and ICB’s SEND Reforms Delivery Plan meaning that there is a risk this would not be signed off by the Department for Education (DfE). A successful submission of the SEND Reform Plan will allow the Council to receive a High Needs Stability Grant from the DfE, which will cover 90% of our existing Net SEND Deficit and is worth circa £14.85m to the Council.
2. Continue with current arrangements: Continuing with current arrangements would mean that existing issues of duplication would continue. A procurement process would still be required to ensure OT provision to meet statutory duties from April 2027.
3. Directly award a contract without competition: the Provider Selection Regime includes provisions to award a contract without completing a competitive procurement process. However, the circumstances in which this approach can be used are limited and there are additional transparency, evaluation and market testing requirements that apply. For a contract of this scope and value, the administrative burden of following this option would be significantly higher and increase the time required to complete the procurement process. Pursuing this option would require us to publicly declare our intentions in advance and complete detailed market research and engagement to identify all potential suppliers before we began the process to award the contract. We would still be required to publicise our intention to award the contract and to evaluate a bid from our chosen supplier as well as any other suppliers that expressed an interest.  This option would also forgo the potential benefits of a competitive process in demonstrating value for money and testing the quality of the service.
4. Insourced Service: Insourcing is not seen as the recommended option due to the specialist nature of the service and cost. A full Insourcing/Outsourcing options appraisal has been completed and attached as Appendix 1.