Decision details

To re-tender the Communication Service for Deaf and Deafened People to commence from 1 April 2020. The current contract ends 31 March 2020.
• This is a statutory Service
• Doncaster Adults service along with DCCG and DBTH have contracted a BSL service for a number of years to meet the communication needs of Deaf, Deafened or Deafblind residents
• This service is to provide Communication Support services that effectively meet the needs of residents, regardless of ethnicity, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation religion or belief.
• The new contract will be jointly commissioned (Doncaster Council, Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group and Doncaster, Bassetlaw Foundation Teaching Hospital) and provides the opportunity to refresh the current Service Specification and to ensure that it fits with the current Adults Transformation Strategy and makes use of new technology.
• The current contract is due to expire 31st March 2020 is held by BID services.
• Quarterly contract review meetings take place with BID and the service is working well and is demonstrating added value (providing an in house interpreter and offering quality
improvement meetings with the deaf community)
• However in 2018 BID were only achieving 75% against performance target of 98% to fulfil assignments, primarily because the contract paid below the market rate exacerbated by a shortage of fully qualified Communication Support Interpreters.
• It was agreed (ODR ref: AHWB 0.68.2018) to increase the rate paid to freelancers from 1 November 2018. The in house interpreter remained at the original rate. This has improved the fulfilment rate, which is currently 94%.

To undertake an EU compliant procurement exercise of the Communication Service for Deaf and Deafened People for a new contract to commence on 1 April 2020 for 36 months with the option to extend for 2 x 12 months. The current contract ends 31 March 2020.

Current Council spend is around £21k per annum. Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospital Trust (DBHT) are charged for any health assignments in addition to this.

The Council wishes to commission a service on an outcome focused approach that will provide Doncaster residents who are deaf, deafened or deafblind with a:
• comprehensive and independent communication service available at the times required by Service Users and other parties involved in the assignment,
• fully accessible service, easy for stakeholders to contact and compliant with all equal opportunities legislation,
• qualified and competent communication support,
• responsive to the communication needs of the Service User and other parties involved in
the assignment,
• person centred, flexible service that can meet complex needs of Service Users’ e.g. dual sensory loss, mental health needs.
Service Review 2019.

A full service review has been undertaken to inform future commissioning. It was identified that there had been some issues around cancellations/non-attendance of interpreters that had been booked for appointments. This appears to have improved since Doncaster Council and partners decided to increase the guaranteed freelance fee from two to three hours.

However, the fees are still below the NUBSLI (National Union of British Sign Language Interpreters) guidelines due to financial constraints of the contract that has now been in place for over 8 years.

BID continues to strive to meet the communication needs of the deaf community in Doncaster by providing a robust accessible booking process and providing high quality communication support and professionals. A team of dedicated co-ordinators manage the booking process and work closely with service users and professionals.
All BID’s interpreters are registered with NRCPD (National Registers of Communication Professionals Working with Deaf and Deafblind People (UK)) with a minimum Level 6 qualification.

In June 2019 BID introduced a new web-based portal booking system.

It is clear from the previous feedback from service users there have been some issues around cancellations/non-attendance of interpreters that had been booked for appointments.
The issues appear to be with the freelance interpreters rather that the contracted staff members, we have addressed this by increasing the appointment times from 2 to 3 hour minimum slots in-line with other organisations using the freelance interpreters.

• Option of purchasing through a translation and interpreting framework, however concerns that this may not offer a fully responsive service that meets the needs of the deaf community in Doncaster. The current contract provides a part time in house interpreter employed in Doncaster supported by freelance interpreters. Additionally we can incorporate social value for the benefit of the Doncaster Deaf Community e.g. incentives to upskill trainee interpreters and raise awareness of the needs of deaf people to service providers.

• Options of whether not to jointly commission with DCCG and DBTFH considered however economies of scale may not be realised and additionally having one contract makes it clearer for members of the deaf community of Doncaster.