Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Leader of the Council and the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, and to consider and endorse or make recommendations to the Leader on the proposed decision on arrangements for re-commissioning.

Mr P B Carter, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Audit and Transformation and Commercial and Traded Services, was present for this item, and Ms S Sheppard, Commissioning Manager, Community Support, was in attendance.

1.            Ms Sheppard introduced the report and explained that the Commissioning Advisory Board (CAB) had considered the issue on 6 July, at which the following points had been raised:-

a)    concern had been raised about the independence of infrastructure providers, and the fact that they were viewed as competitors by the organisations they supported because many were also service providers. Infrastructure providers would need to demonstrate that they could separate their infrastructure and service provider roles effectively; and

b)    the value of the contract would diminish over its length, and services would need to be self-sustaining in providing support. Bidders would need to identify how they would achieve this sustainability.  

2.            Members who had attended the CAB meeting added that reservations had been expressed there, and the board had requested changes to the report. Ms Sheppard explained that the agenda and reports for this committee had been published before the board meeting and so it had not been possible to update the report to this committee. 

3.            In debate, Members made the following comments:-

a)     the rationale for using the best available organisations working together as a team was understood, but an alliance was only as good as its weakest link and doubts were expressed about how well the arrangement would work. Ms Sheppard responded that peer support could be used to share expertise and spread best practice across the range of large and small organisations;

b)    concern was expressed that, if services were to be delivered by volunteers, skill levels and the quality of training could be difficult to monitor and guarantee. Ms Sheppard explained that volunteer centres would take on a brokerage role, so neither they nor the County Council would be liable for problems arising from shortcomings in volunteers. The brokerage role was a traditional one within the sector, but an ongoing challenge to be addressed was a way to make volunteering more flexible so more people could be encouraged to volunteer in ways which fitted their time, capacity and skills;

c)    the change in arrangement would save £500,000, and the value of making the extensive changes proposed to achieve this saving was questioned;

d)    the proposed 3- or 5-year contract would bring future certainty to providers who currently had no such certainty around ongoing funding from year to year;

e)    the overview of the voluntary and community sector which would be possible with the recommissioning would make it easier for best practice to be shared and spread, and for areas of particular hardship to be highlighted for further help; and

f)     the voluntary sector and the services it provided were of enormous value to the County Council, but the true value could only be calculated if the number of hours donated by volunteers were identified and added  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15