Agenda item

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care, submits a report that provides the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission with an analysis of service user engagement completed as part of the re-procurement of domiciliary care support services.

The Commission is recommended to note the content of the report and to provide feedback.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submitted a report that provided the Commission with an analysis of service user engagement completed as part of the re-procurement of domiciliary care support services. The engagement exercise was undertaken for both Adult Social Care and health service users, as consideration was being given to jointly procuring domiciliary care support with the Leicester Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The Deputy City Mayor, with responsibility for Adult Social Care, Health Integration and Wellbeing, presented the report explaining that the Council wanted to continue to provide good domiciliary care and to meet as many of the criteria set out in the care charter, as possible. There had been a 30% response rate to the consultation, which was considered to be very high for a consultation of that nature. It was expected that a decision would be made within the next two to four weeks regarding the joint procurement with the Leicester CCG. The contract to be awarded was very considerable and it was important that the right decision was made.  Joint procurement could show immediate benefits but there was a need to consider what it would mean for service users.

In response to questions raised, the Deputy City Mayor explained that he had approached the proposed joint procurement exercise with an open mind; consideration needed to be given as to whether there were sufficient advantages in departing from the Council’s current practice. If domiciliary care services were jointly procured and resulted in greater stability for service users, then this would be a good outcome.

A question was raised relating to the budget, and the Director for Adult Social Care and Commissioning explained that currently about £10.5m was spent on domiciliary care. When the Council tendered the contract, they would offer a financial envelope and invite tenders within that.  The tender would state what training was necessary and there would be quality control checks to ensure that this was carried out. As part of the Quality Assurance Framework, care provider’s training records would be checked and views of service users and their families were also taken into account.  The Strategic Director added that the service providers were also regulated by the Care Quality Commission.

A Member questioned how language difficulties were managed and heard that as part of the tendering process, would be providers were asked how they would be able to provide people with the appropriate language skills.     

A concern was expressed that where a service was procured, rather than being offered ‘in-house’, it took longer to resolve problems. A suggestion was made that the Council needed to be more robust with providers where issues and problems were raised. The Strategic Director responded that whether in-house or with a provider, any problems or issues would be dealt with, with the same timeline and expectations. It should not take any longer to get a resolution with a provider, but if this happened, he would want to be informed.

RESOLVED:

1)    that the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission note the report; and

2)    for officers in Adult Social Care to give due consideration to all the comments made by Members of the Commission.