Decision

1.    That the
Director of Public Health be given delegated authority to direct
award to Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust the 0-5 services
(Health Visitors and Family Hubs) alongside school nurses
by following the Health
Care Services Provider Selection Regime ((‘PSR for
Health’) which is a UK Government set of regulations for
procuring health care services).

 

2.    That the
Director of Children’s Services be given delegated
authority:

 

i)            
to bring young people’s substance misuse and
return home conversation provisions ‘in-house’ so those
delivering services are under direct control of the Local Authority
(through a HR process of TUPE staff into the Local
Authority).

 

ii)         To
re-procure Advocacy and Independent Visitors Services via an open
market tender opportunity.

Reasons for the decision

The elements of the
service that are proposed for a direct award allows the Authority
to maintain services that are in broad terms, currently delivering
against their contractual aims and objectives and are delivering
services effectively to Torbay’s residents.  Furthermore, it allows for the Authority to build
on the developing youth provision locally to give more coherence
and resilience to this emerging offer. This in turn will support
the development of an offer for a potential future
procurement.

Alternative options considered

The
options were:
 
Option 1 - was to
‘do nothing’ and continue with the contract ‘as
is’ with no material change to the core contract or the
delivery partners until the contract reaches its natural end point
in March 2028. Whilst this maintains systems and pathways, it does
not give additional scope or capability to reconfigure the services
as required.

 
Option 2: Bring
in-house the whole of the current provision. This would give the
Authority total control of the services, but some are required
under guidance or legislation to be arm’s length from the
Authority (e.g. advocacy) and equally would place significant
burdens on the Authority to oversee a workforce whereby the
capacity, skills and competence to do so does not currently exist
(such as the NHS nursing workforce in 0-19).

 
Option 3: undertake an
open market procurement for the services. This option would enable
a full-service redesign to occur but wouldn’t enable those
services that could form part of the emerging youth offer to
integrate into this offer. Additionally, this would create a
significant operational burden on officers (and provider services)
to undertake a complex wholesale procurement whereby the drivers
for such a process across all services involved were not
present.

 
Option 4: undertake
the hybrid model of procurement whereby some services were procured
on the market, some were procured via direct award and some were ‘in-housed’. This
option best addresses the weak spots in the model currently and
allows for the integration of appropriate services into a youth
model, whilst maintaining provisions where there are no significant
material deficits. This route also avoids significant system
destabilisation and increased officer and partner organisation
workload to procure services unnecessarily. It does however allow
services where an open market procurement is in the organisations
and young people’s best interests, to occur.