Issue - meetings

Purpose: To award the contract for the supply/provision of Public Health Nursing Service 0-19 (up to 25 years for young people with special educational needs and disabilities) following a tender process.

Resolved to:

1.    award the contract for the provision of Public Health Nursing Service 0-19 (up to 25 years for young people with special educational needs and disabilities) to the successful bidder

2.    delegate authority to Service Director Communities and Wellbeing to award the contract for the provision of Public Health Nursing Service 0-19 (up to 25 years) services to the successful bidder in consultation with the Head of Finance and the Portfolio holder for Public Health and Wellbeing

3.    delegate authority to the Service Lead Legal & Democratic Services in consultation to finalise the terms of the agreement as set out in the tender documents and to make any necessary drafting or other amendments to the terms of the agreement which are necessary to reach final agreement but do not materially affect the intent and substance of the agreement.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      a delay in implementing the decision this would cause the Council serious financial implications or could compromise the Council's position.

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda item 9) which proposed to award the contract for the supply/provision of Public Health Nursing Service 0-19 (up to 25 years for young people with special educational needs and disabilities) following a tender process.

Councillor Graham Bridgman explained that this contract was brought to Executive due to the levels of expenditure involved. He also pointed out an amendment to the Part 1 report; there was mention of an Appendix C document to follow but it had subsequently been decided that this was not needed.

Councillor Alan Macro asked for assurance that, as the contract included other authorities, there would not be issues in the future similar to those being experienced by the JPPC with Wokingham’s exit. Councillor Bridgman explained that the relationships between local health trusts were different to those between local authorities and that similar issues were unlikely.

Councillor Macro also sought reassurance that the Council was happy with the performance of the current contract holder before offering them this new contract. Councillor Bridgman felt that these were questions for Part 2.

Councillor Macro pointed to examples of the service not meeting expectations for some families. Councillor Bridgman did not have the necessary details to answer the question but committed to following this up and working with officers to provide an answer.

Councillor Macro noted the bid documents mentioned “local authority specific elements” of the service and he asked for clarification of what these were for West Berkshire Council. Councillor Bridgman did not have the details of those elements to hand but committed to finding out and providing a response in writing after the meeting.

Councillor Carolyne Culver queried why this contract was being put through the West Berkshire Council procurement process rather than being handled by the NHS and how much time and money was being spent on the tendering process rather than funds going to front line services. Councillor Bridgman explained that local authorities were responsible for the provision of some public health services; many of which were funded via grants which must be used for public health purposes. The services were commissioned jointly through the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group but it was essentially a local authority function. Councillor Bridgman also noted that any contract would be required to go through a tendering process regardless of whether it happened at local government level, national government level or within the NHS so there was no way of avoiding some funds being spent on that process somewhere to ensure the contract provided value for money.

Councillor Richard Somner noted that not all providers could provide the same service and the tendering process was also about finding a provider who could meet the specific needs of the contract.

Recommendations (Vote to be taken in Part 2):

1)    To award the contract for the provision of Public Health Nursing Service 0-19 (up to 25 years for young people with special educational needs and disabilities) to the successful bidder

2)    To delegate authority to Service  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37