Decision Maker: Director of Adults, Health and Well-Being
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
1. The decision to go out to market for a
Direct Payment Support Service was taken in January 2018, however a
single poor quality bid was received and an options appraisal
together with a Market Event happened over the Summer.
2. A number of changes have been made to the original tender to
refine the offer and make it more attractive to the Market. Apart
from the changes detailed below, nothing has changed in respect of
the previous ODR in terms of aims, objectives and financial
envelope.
3. Change of name: The name change has been agreed, after some
debate internally, together with feedback from Providers that the
Direct Payment Support Service did not accurately reflect the
‘managed’ element of the service. The name Direct
Payment Managed Support Service more correctly describes the range
of the services provided.
4. TUPE of Council Officers: This is no longer applicable to this
contract.
5. This is fortuitous as feedback received at the Provider event
suggested one of the main barriers to submitting a bid for this
service was based on the internal council staff and the associated
TUPE and pension costs. A few providers identified that the pay
scales for the positions would also create an inequity between
transferred and existing staff which may also be difficult to
manage.
Revised Procurement Timetable – due to the need to refresh,
revise and update the Specification for this service, the original
Procurement timeline has been delayed. Therefore the new contract
is now expected to ‘go live’ on 1st February 2019,
rather than 1st January 2019. A Contract Waiver is to be submitted
to Audit to inform them of the necessary delay and the required
extension to The Rowan contract.
To approve the changes to the Direct Payment
Managed Support Service:
- Change of name from Direct Payment Support Service
- The TUPE of Council Officers involved in delivering the in-house
service (Direct Payments Support Team) is not relevant
- Revised Costs based on feedback from Provider Market Event
- Revised Procurement Timetable
1. Do Nothing – this would mean that
Doncaster would not have a Direct Payment Managed Support Service
to provide essential support to people who wanted to take a Direct
Payment and thereby have a bespoke and tailored Care Package to
meet their needs. Doncaster would be limiting the choice of people
assessed as requiring care and support.
2. Not revise the Specification and costs – there would be a
strong potential that providers would not bid for the contract (as
previous tender exercise) and leave a significant gap / further
delays whilst the required changes were made.
Publication date: 16/12/2019
Date of decision: 17/12/2018