PAPER C
ADULT
AND COMMUNITY SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE – 26 OCTOBER 2004
HOME
CARE UPDATE
REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE HOMECARE TASK GROUP
This report was requested by the Select Committee to provide information on current homecare provision and the tendering process which is underway for homecare.
ACTION REQUIRED BY
THE SELECT COMMITTEE
(i) To receive the
information
(ii) To consider whether there is any further
enquiry or policy decision to be added to the Committee’s work programme.
BACKGROUND
Members
will be aware that continuity of service provision for home care in some areas
of the island has been difficult over the recent past. As a result of this a home care task group
was instigated, comprising Members and Officers to consider possible actions
required in order to both stabilise and develop homecare provision.
In
the last report to Select Committee in March 2004, the proposed future
purchasing arrangements for homecare were detailed, this paper provides a brief
update on developments.
THE FUTURE PURCHASING ARRANGEMENTS FOR HOME CARE
As per the proposed project plan, an open tendering process has been undertaken. 23 tender packs were requested, 8 providers responded and submitted applications. A team comprising officers from Adult and Community Services, Corporate Procurement, Contracts and the Joint Commissioning Unit undertook the initial shortlisting process. A short list of 5 organisations was drawn up.
All 5 shortlisted organisations were interviewed by a panel made up of Chair of the Homecare Task Group, Head of Adult Services, Acting Director of Commissioning for the PCT and Contracts Officer. At this point negotiations are taking place with the preferred organisations and by Select Committee on 26th October we will be able to confirm the outcome of the process. The project has been delivered in line with proposed timescales.
The decision to award the tenders has not been only based on price, but on quality and added value, eg better outcomes for service users from increased staff training and supervision, which the organisations will be able to deliver for the island. It is likely that there will be an above inflation cost pressure as a result of the process.
We are continuing to work with our in house service, ‘Wightcare’, to reposition themselves as a specialist provider. Wightcare has not been involved in the locality tendering process but is required to provide overarching, island-wide care that will provide a range of specialist services such as supporting people with challenging behaviour, providing rapid response/intake team, out of hours etc. This will require investment in staff training to ensure that Wightcare is the flagship provider it needs to be.
The management of Wightcare will transfer to Adult Services from mid November. Staff consultation and information meetings have been arranged for 1st and 3rd November.
The exclusions documented
previously remain in place, i.e. joint community care and Supporting People
care and support packages, specialist client groups such as young physical
disability and learning disability services.
Further work is required to ensure a cogent and coherent approach in the
future and we will take the lessons learned from the current process into a
preferred provider and block contract system for these groups over the coming
months.
CONSULTATION PROCESS
We have undertaken significant consultation throughout this process eg open meetings for users, carers and staff, provider meetings and a further public meeting is planned to announce the outcome of the tender process and to confirm for people the way forward in terms of service provider changes. We will be mindful of the need to reassure people that they are not going to lose existing care packages as a result of this process, unless a needs assessment determines that this is appropriate. In addition to open meetings, we will correspond individually with all service users and care managers will be available if people require home visits.
All users will be able to utilise Direct Payments to purchase their care from alternative agencies if they so wish. In preparation for this we recently successfully bid for development funds to pay for additional advocacy and support for people wishing to take up this option.
The homecare sector affects a number of our key performance indicators including:
PAF B11 Intensive homecare as a %age of intensive home care & residential care
D41 Delayed Discharges
D43 Waiting time for care packages
C28 Number of households receiving intensive home care
C27-28 Supported admissions to residential care
C29–32 Adults supported to live at home
Having adequate and robust services is also key to implementing areas such as the National Service Framework for older people and influences our ability to develop services to meet our obligations under ‘Valuing People’ (the White Paper for People with a Learning Disability.)
Others areas would be:
FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS
There are no crime and disorder implications. Financial consequences of not having a robust homecare sector are that we will continue to place people in residential care at a higher cost than could be expected within homecare packages.
There is likely to be an above inflation cost to awarding of tenders but in return we will get significant improvements to staff terms and conditions, training, consistency and reliability of service provision.
The costs of transferring staff to new providers is difficult to accurately predict as external providers have declined to provide details of their existing staff.. However, this risk is balanced by the significant shortfall in homecarers at this point, so all displaced staff could be absorbed under the new contracts. It would appear that the proposed preferred providers will be offering better terms and conditions than existing providers.
In respect of our own staff, we still believe that we will be able to redeploy all within our new structure. Should any member of the in-house staff team request TUPE to another employer this would be facilitated as appropriate.
Select Committee Report dated 18th March 2004 entitled “Homecare Services”.
Contact Point:
Sandy Weller, Head of Adult Services – Social Services & Housing
Directorate
( 2247, e-mail: [email protected]
COUNCILLOR DAVID WILLIAMS