Purpose

Provision of community equipment and assistive
technology including minor adaptations in H&F across Children's
Services and Adult Social Care.

Decision

The Leader approves
 
1.    
Appendices A and B are not for publication on the basis that it
contains information relating to the financial or business affairs
of any particular person (including the authority holding that
information) as set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local
Government Act 1972 (as amended).
 
2.    
A direct award to the preferred provider for the
provision of community equipment services from 15th
September 2025 for one year with the option to extend by one year
and a further one year.
 
 

Reasons for the decision

1.    
Local authorities have a statutory duty under various legislation
including the Care Act 2014, and the Children and Families Act
2014, to make arrangements for the
provision of disability aids and “community equipment”,
to meet the assessed eligible needs of individuals who are resident
in their area.
 
2.    
The provision of community equipment supports residents to remain
as independent as possible for as long as possible and is both a
statutory requirement and important in delivering key strategic
system priorities to support hospital discharge and prevention.
 
3.    
The recommendations within this paper seek to sustain the delivery
of this service, ensuring continuity of provision whilst a new
service is mobilised.
 

Alternative options considered

1.    
The Council is required to secure alternative provision. Not doing
so, would result in failure to deliver statutory services.
 
2.    
Officers considered delivering provision as an in-house service,
however there are significant challenges in relation to this. Both
at Local, regional and pan-London level, Council’s do not
have the expertise or capacity to mobilise a service of this scale.
It is highly complex and would pose a significant risk to the
safety of residents and patients in the delivery of these statutory
services. The provider market is limited, posing significant risk
to the supply chain becoming swamped by individual authorities and
ICB’s purchasing directly. Failure to deliver these services
poses a significant risk to the disruption of safe and effective
hospital discharges. Delays in discharges will likely result in
delays in admissions and treatment. This option was therefore
considered not viable within the timeframe for Hammersmith &
Fulham.
 
3.    
Officers explored the most appropriate procurement options on a
pan-London, regional and local basis to secure the continuity of
provision. The provider market is significantly underdeveloped.
There are only three main providers nationally, with only two of
them operating in London. The main alternative provider in London
indicated they did not have sufficient capacity to meet
H&F’s requirements, only being able to fulfil a small
proportion of the London footprint based on geographical
locations.
 
4.    
H&F will be part of an 8-borough partnership under the new
arrangements. The London Borough of Camden will be the host borough
for the partnership and manage the governance, contract monitoring,
finance and IT on behalf of all the boroughs. A financial
contribution to Camden to provide services is set out in appendix
B. The agreement, roles, responsibilities and terms of the
partnership are set out in a Deed agreed by all 8 boroughs.
 
5.    
The IT system used by the insolvent provider was offered to the new
provider to enable transition. However, the costs of the system
were prohibitive, and the London Borough of Harrow have procured an
IT system to facilitate the management of the new equipment
service. These costs are approximately 50% less than the insolvent
provider offer, they will be split equally across the 8 boroughs
and are set out in appendix B.