Decision details

Report of the Senior Commissioner, System Redesign detailing the Home Care Winter Pressures Capacity Plan.

Having complied with paragraph 15 of the Council’s Access to Information Procedure Rules:

(i)  To authorise additional expenditure, in this financial year, to provide sustainability and responsiveness across the Home Care commissioning;

(ii)  To delegate authority to the Director of Quality and Integration to carry the necessary commissioning arrangement for Home Care as set out in the report and to enter into contracts in accordance with Contract Procedure Rules.  This will result in one provider having their contract value increased for a period of November 2018 to March 2019. 

This report is submitted for consideration as a General Exception under paragraph 15 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules in Part 4 of the City Council’s Constitution, notice having been given to the Chair of the relevant Scrutiny Panel and the Public.  The matter requires an urgent decision as additional pressures over the summer period have contributed to a higher than usual demand for home care as we move into the winter period.

The proposed increase in spending provides a small amount of guaranteed hours of home care which will contribute, along with increased capacity in the Integrated Urgent Response Service (URS), to provide greater responsiveness and sustainability of delivery over the winter period.

The additional spend proposed will result in an award to one provider which will take the Council’s spend, to that provider, over £500,000 which meets the threshold for an increase of Key Decision.  The additional spend is outlined in section 6.1 of the report.

Note: The usual additional spend to address winter pressures is agreed through the appropriate delegation to the Director of Quality and Integration and Cabinet Member’s sign off.

The alternative option is to continue with the current level of commissioning, including an increase which can be awarded within the usual delegation and continue to procure Home Care through a normal call off process.  Analysis of current position and learning from previous periods of peak demand suggest that this will be insufficient to meet the need of the client group.  The impact will be that a large number of clients at any one time will be waiting for a package of care which is unsatisfactory from them and has a direct impact on capacity across the health and social care system.