Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and the Director of Public Health, and to consider and endorse or make recommendations to the Cabinet Member on the proposed decision to award the contract in West Kent to the successful bidder, from those listed in the exempt appendix to the report, and to extend the existing contract in East Kent.

Mr M Gilbert, Commissioning and Performance Manager, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Mr Gilbert introduced the report and responded to comments and questions from Members, as follows:-

a)    by seeking a co-design arrangement with providers, the County Council would work together with them to identify priorities to ensure that needs could still be met within reducing funding.  Bidders for the West Kent contract and the current provider of the East Kent contract had given assurances that they could and would continue to deliver services within the available budget; 

b)    as part of the procurement process, the County Council had identified areas of risk, and would always be proactive in meeting with service users in the early stages of a new contract to identify any problems or shortcomings in the service they received from the provider and would then be proactive in addressing those issues with the provider. Mr Gilbert offered to report back to the Committee to Members assurances on the performance of the service; and

c)    differing levels of spend in East and West Kent reflected the different levels of need in the two areas. There was a substantially higher number of drug and alcohol users in treatment in East Kent compared to West Kent, and this warranted a higher contract value for East Kent.

2.            The Cabinet Member, Mr Gibbens, thanked Members for their comments and emphasised his commitment to providing a strong drug and alcohol service across Kent.  He added that the contracts which the County Council had been able to negotiate for this service were an example of the benefit of the Public Health function now being within the County Council.  

3.            RESOLVED that:-

a)    the progress of the procurement of the West Kent Drug and Alcohol Service, and the contract extension for East Kent, be noted;

b)    the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, to:-

i)             award the contract for the West Kent Drug and Alcohol Service to the successful bidder (from those listed in the exempt appendix to the report); and

ii)            invoke the one-year contract extension option within the East Kent Drug and Alcohol Service contract (provided by Turning Point), to enable it to run until 31st March 2017,

taking account of comments made by this committee, be endorsed.