Outcome of Brokerage Services(encompassing payroll) Tender

Transcription

1 Report to Cabinet Outcome of Brokerage Services(encompassing payroll) Tender Portfolio Holder: Cllr Jenny Harrison, Social Care & Safeguarding Officer Contact: Maggie Kufeldt, Executive Director - Health & Wellbeing Report Author: Hayley Ashall, Planning and Commissioning Manager Ext. 1270/ April 2016 Reason for Decision Oldham has historically worked with brokers to support individuals in receipt of a personal budget to enable them to purchase their own services and support; thus enabling the individual choice and control. The current list of approved brokers was dated and a new joint approved brokerage list across Adults and Children s services which supported the requirements of the Care Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice 2014 was required. There was an obligation for brokers interested, to work co-operatively with us in order to develop a good brokerage service for individuals in Oldham, to work creatively to meet the specification outlined in the tender process and to also work towards and regularly monitor on key management information. Recommendations To agree the approved Brokerage (encompassing payroll) Service list as outlined in this report. This would enable a move towards a choice based model within an approved provider list, this will ultimately ensure safeguarding of clients and best practice across our brokerage services. Clients currently utilising service of brokers not on the approved list will select a broker form the approved list at the point of annual review or reassessment using the choice based model.

2 Cabinet 18 April 2016 Outcome of Brokerage Services (encompassing payroll) Tender 1 Background 1.1 As part of Oldham s person-centred approach to care and support and, in line with the Care Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice 2014, all those who are eligible for care and support from the council will be allocated a personal budget and encouraged to take up a direct (cash) payment rather than having a package of care and support services arranged for them. 1.2 Direct Payments enable children/young people and adults with social care needs to have more choice and control over the support they receive. Many choose to employ Personal Assistants to give them maximum control and flexibility to meet their desired outcomes, some are unable to confidently manage these or other service arrangements and look to a Broker to help them manage their direct payment, set up their services and manage any related employment processes. This has a positive impact on individuals in receipt of direct payments as they have someone to manage the process and services for them leaving the individual with piece of mind and feeling supported. 1.3 Oldham has recently had an upward turn in individuals choosing to take a direct payment offering them a true person-centred approach, transparent process and increased choice and control over their services and support received. Therefore creating better outcomes for service users in Oldham. As higher numbers of service users opt to utilise a direct payment, there is a risk that the overall cost to OMBC to fund the brokerage service could increase. However in order to monitor and manage this there will be stringent and regular checks and reviews put in place to monitor the cost of providing the service. 1.4 Oldham has undertaken a tender exercise to appoint an approved list of brokers for children s and adults services in Oldham. Brokers who are appointed onto the approved list of Brokers (encompassing payroll) are in no way guaranteed any level of business. However, the List will be published on the Council s website and service users in receipt of Individual budgets will be informed of the Approved List of Providers. 1.5 Existing clients with brokers not on the approved providers list will be transferred to the providers on the new approved list. This does not limit an individual s choice but ensures choice within an approved list whilst ensuring stringent checks and controls are in place to protect the individual and public funds. All transfers to new brokers will be completed in partnership with the individual and they will be able to choose which approved provider they wish to transfer to. All transfers will take place as part of the social care review/reassessment process. 1.6 As part of the Co-operative way of working the Council engaged with existing and potential brokers at an engagement event and followed up as appropriate from this event. The event was focused on what would a good brokerage service in Oldham look like, much of the feedback from this session was used when designing the service specification. See appendix 1 for the service specification which was used as part of the tender process. 1.7 Those brokers on the approved providers list will be expected to meet a number of performance and quality measures set out by the Council as part of the tender process. (See appendix 1 pages 8 10). As well as measuring the performance of the brokers; these performance measures provide an opportunity to gain information on service user experience to ensure quality of services received and also ensuring through services procured the individuals are achieving positive person focused outcomes. 2

3 2 Current Position 2.1 The contract for an Approved List for Adults and Children for the provision of Brokerage Services (encompassing Payroll) was advertised on 2nd November 2015 in OJEU, Contracts Finder and on The Chest (E-Portal) and was tendered through competitive process (Open Tender). The contract is for 3 years with an option to extend for a further year. 2.2 The Evaluation Panel consisted of Jayne Ratcliffe [Head of Service for Older People, Safeguarding and Principal Social Worker], Kirsty Littlewood [Head of Client Support Services], Julie Hawkins [Short Breaks and Transformation Manager], Diana Nuttall [Procurement Manager, Facilitator]. In order to consider development of a future integrated health and social care brokerage list including the use of personal health budgets; health colleagues were involved in the process and undertook an observational role at the panel. 2.3 A total of 8 Providers submitted a Tender. 2.4 Seven providers submitted a Tender for the full provision of the Brokerage and Payroll function. One provider submitted a Tender for the Payroll only function. 2.5 The Tenders were evaluated in accordance with the following criteria and weightings: Technical Capacity 50% (which included 15% for Social Value) Interviews 15% Price 35% 2.6 A minimum or maximum number of suppliers for the Approved List was not stipulated but the Tenders needed to meet the minimum satisfactory scores in the evaluation questions to meet the standard. 2.7 The following scores were awarded to the respective organisations following the Panel s evaluation of the Technical submissions. These scores were based on the aforementioned evaluation criteria and weightings (pre-interview). 2.8 Brokerage & Payroll 2.9 Payroll Only Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % (this is for technical submission only) To mitigate the risk of having no Providers for the Approved List, those Providers who had scored borderline in their technical submission were taken through to the next stage of the process (Interview/Presentation) and to seek further clarification on their tender submission Following this process the final scores were awarded: 3

4 Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % Provider % 2.12 The outcome of the procurement process is that the providers below met the standard, their prices were comparative to its competitors and therefore should be placed on the Council s Approved List. There will be opportunities in the future to influence provider engagement to continue to meet Council requirements and monitor supplier performance through the KPI s outlined in the Contract. Provider 3 Provider 4 Provider 5 Provider 6 Provider If agreed, the new approved Brokers (encompassing payroll) list will commence from the 1 June The council currently spends in the region of 200,000 on brokerage services annually. However, the approved providers list does not guarantee any individual provider a specific amount of income within any financial year as the choice of broker is a client preference The approved brokerage providers list will be reviewed as part of the integration programme with health colleagues in the next 2 years. This will enable alignment and integration of existing health and social care policies and procedures to support the development of a Local Care Organisation and deliverability integrated personal budgets. 3 Options/Alternatives 3.1 Option 1 would be to agree the outcomes of the Brokerage Services (encompassing Payroll) Tender approved list of providers. This Tender followed the appropriate procurement process and outcomes meet the requirements of the Care Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice This would enable a move towards a choice based model within an approved provider list, this will ultimately ensure safeguarding of clients and best practice across our brokerage services. Clients currently utilising service of brokers not on the approved list will select a broker form the approved list at the point of annual review or reassessment using the choice based model. 3.2 Option 2 would be to not agree the outcomes of the Brokerage Services (encompassing Payroll) Tender approved list of providers. This would mean continuing to work with some providers who hadn t met the requirements of the new specification or that of the Care Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice To continue to work with the existing arrangement would mean there would be no formal governance arrangements in place. It would also mean that the Council would continue to commission from some providers who did not meet the technical criteria following the evaluation of the Tender process. Continuing the current processes would not enable the council to safeguard clients, public funds or ensure best practice across brokers in Oldham. 4 Preferred Option 4

5 4.1 Option 1 would be to agree the outcomes of the Brokerage Services (encompassing Payroll) Tender approved list of providers. This Tender followed the appropriate procurement process and outcomes meet the requirements of the Care Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice Formal governance process will be in place and the Council will meet its legal obligations under the procurement regulations. This option also outlines the move towards a new choice based model for brokerage services in Oldham ensuring safeguarding and best practice across brokerage services. 5 Consultation 5.1 As part of this process brokerage and payroll providers were involved in the shaping what a good brokerage service office in Oldham should look like. 6 Financial Implications 6.1 There is currently no separate budget for brokerage services. An amount to pay for the service is added to an individual s personal budget. The systems are not yet able to separate this out without going into each account separately. The amount paid across is not taken into account when client contributions are calculated and so the cost is ultimately picked up by OMBC. However Oldham is likely to look in the future as to whether the individual should fund the brokerage fees through their own personal budget when care is arranged. The tender above would not change this. 6.2 As higher number of service users opt to utilise a direct payment, there is a risk that the overall cost to OMBC to fund the brokerage service could increase. (Gioia Morrison) 7 Legal Services Comments 7.1 Terms and conditions based upon those utilised by Oldham Council for the provision of services in excess of 250k were included in the invitation to tender together with a comprehensive service description so the transaction should, from a contractual documentation perspective, be low risk. (Rebecca Boyle) 8. Co-operative Agenda 8.1 There was an obligation for brokers interested, to work co-operatively in partnership with us in order to develop a good brokerage service for individuals in Oldham. The Cooperative agenda is about working in a way which helps to empower residents to take greater control of their own lives but also get the maximum benefit from the resources that are available to the community and public sector. By accessing a direct payment and working with a broker enables the individual more choice and control over their own care and support services, enabling them to feel empowered and in control. Working with a broker can help an individual understand what is available across Oldham but also in their local community in order to help support the individual to achieve person centred outcomes. 8.2 The Co-operative agenda also encompasses a much broader range of approaches that reflect the values and ethos of co-operatives working. This means working in ways which are ethical, fair and deliver good social value as well as value-for-money. When an individual works with a broker they will have peace of mind that they have looked at creative ways to utilise their personal budget and also working with a broker from the approved provider list ensures safeguarding of the individual but also public funds. 9 Human Resources Comments 5

6 9.1 There are no staffing implications. 10 Risk Assessments 10.1 None 11 IT Implications 11.1 There is no change to or requirement to amend the current IT systems. 12 Property Implications 12.1 None 13 Procurement Implications 13.1 The value of the procurement exceeded EU thresholds and a procurement was undertaken in accordance with the EU Procurement Regulations This was a competitive procurement under Regulation as described in the Contract Regulations conducted under the Open Procedure Route (Light Touch Regime) Social Value is a KPI within the contract and as such will be measured through the performance monitoring of the contract (Diana Nuttall) 14 Environmental and Health & Safety Implications 14.1 None 15 Equality, community cohesion and crime implications 15.1 None 16 Equality Impact Assessment Completed? 16.1 No 17 Key Decision 17.1 Yes 18 Key Decision Reference 18.1 Agreed under Rule 16 of the Constitution 19 Background Papers 19.1 None 20 Appendices 20.1 Appendix 1 Service Specification 6