Agenda item

Jane Seymour introduced the report (Agenda 12), which sought to inform the Schools’ Forum about the re commissioning of the therapy service for children who had speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or physiotherapy written into their Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) as an educational need. West Berkshire Council had a statutory duty to provide these therapies for children with EHCPs,

The provision of speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy for children who did not have an EHCP was the responsibility of the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in Health.

The contract currently was held by Berkshire Health Foundation Trust. The current contract cost West Berkshire Council £323k per annum and this was funded from the High Needs Block (HNB).

It was agreed in 2021 by the Berkshire West Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) Children’s Programme Board that therapies should in future be commissioned on a Berkshire West footprint as a joint arrangement involving West Berkshire Council, Brighter Futures for Children (Reading) and Wokingham Borough Council, with Wokingham as the lead authority. Together the three local authorities had agreed a new service specification for the joint service, based on existing service specifications. The contract was advertised in February 2022 with a submission date of 29^th April 2022. Tenders were currently being evaluated by a panel consisting of representatives from all three areas. The new contract was due to commence in September 2022. Each area would then purchase an agreed amount of therapies.

Due to procurement regulations it was not possible to give any further details on the process at this stage however, it was expected that there would likely be an increase in the cost of the contract due to inflation and salary costs. It was also possible that increases might be sought in line with increasing demand for therapies in schools given the level of EHCPs had increased. 

The final outcome of the process would be reported to the Schools’ Forum once a decision had been made.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the report.