Decision

Decision
 
For the reasons set
out in the report and its appendices Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree:
 

i) 
To approve the commissioning intentions for Specialist SRH Services
set out in this report;

 

ii) 
That commissioners can pursue a direct award of an eight-year
contract (five years with three optional one-year extension
periods) for the provision of statutory Specialist Sexual and
Relationship Health (SRH) services to Barts Health NHS Trust (the
incumbent provider) under ‘Direct Award Procedure C’ of
the Provider Selection Regime 2023 (PSR) regulations; and waive the
Contracts Standing Orders as required for award;

 

iii) 
To delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Adults and
Health, in consultation with the Lead Member for Health and Adult
Social Care, to:

 

· 
award the contract, and any annual changes to baselines tariffs and
work packages.

· 
extend the contract up to the maximum permitted extension of three
years.

 

iv) 
To note the estimated total value of the contract to Newham is
£32-36 million over eight years; and

 

v) 
To note the award of the contract will be subject to each All East
Borough’s agreement that the contract should be awarded.
 
Alternatives
Considered
 

a) 
These services are statutory and need to be commissioned in some
form. The main consideration, therefore, was the appropriate
procurement approach. A competitive process was considered and
ultimately rejected for the following reasons:
 

· 
Directors and Commissioners across NEL agree that a
transformational approach is not required at this time. This level
of service overhaul (i.e. the integration of GUM and CASH,
implementation of a London-wide tariff and online e-service) was
undertaken successfully between 2015 and 2018. The positive impact
of that transformational process remains in place today.

· 
Our residents have told us that they value the service delivered by
the incumbent provider: The current model was developed following
engagement with over 5,000 residents across north east London
(NEL). Furthermore, more recent engagement and ‘Mystery
Shopping’ work undertaken by NEL commissioners in
collaboration with providers indicated that the quality of the
service was almost universally high across clinic settings.

· 
Newham Council runs the ‘NEL Shared Commissioning
Service’ for SRH services. Legal and Procurement capacity
within the Council is severely limited as the Council undertakes a
long-term strategic restructure of corporate support services. As
such, specialist Legal and Procurement capacity would need to be
‘bought in’ from the private sector to handle the
increase in capacity needed for a competitive process. There is no
budget available for this. ‘bought in’ from the private
sector to handle the increase in capacity needed for a competitive
process. There is no budget available for this.