Issue - meetings

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services and  the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, and to consider and endorse or make recommendations to the Cabinet Member on the proposed decision to approve the approach to the future commissioning of external fostering placements for children and young people aged 0–18 years and delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, or other nominated officer, to undertake the necessary actions to award the contract and implement the decision

Ms K Sharp, as Head of Children’s Commissioning, and Ms M L Hall, Commissioning Manager, were in attendance for this item.

1.            Ms Sharp introduced the report and explained that the County Council needed to commission a small number of external foster placements to supplement its in-house fostering service.  Ms Hall added that the renewal deadline for the current commissioning arrangements of September 2017 had brought an opportunity to review the effectiveness of the current arrangements and assess how these could be simplified in the future. With Mr Ireland and Mr Segurola, they responded to comments and questions from Members, as follows:-

a)    83% of the market had reported that very little of their custom came from the County Council; most came from children placed by other local authorities, and competing with this, and the rates paid by other local authorities, many of them from London, would be a challenge;

b)    the type of placement sought was changing, and increasing demand for wraparound care would decrease the use of external fostering placements. The County Council needed to be able to offer choice and range of placement, and this range was as important as the quantity of the placements available;

c)    it was envisaged that the amount of custom given to external providers would diminish over the life of the new commissioning arrangement, but working with a smaller section of the external market would give better value for money. External providers could be recruited to work exclusively with the County Council and guaranteed a volume of trade;

d)    in response to a question about the extent of spot-purchasing over the last financial year, Ms Hall undertook to provide this information outside the meeting;

e)    in response to a question about the extent of competitive tendering which was possible within the market, Mr Ireland explained that the market was limited to a finite number of accredited and approved foster carers, and the County Council had to compete with independent fostering agencies (IFAs) to engage them.  The extent to which foster carers could be matched was limited by the number of foster carers available at the time, and would need to take account of the needs of the child and the foster family; and

f)     in response to a question about the possibility of reducing costs by not using an agency but employing external foster carers directly, Mr Segurola added that, to be able to accommodate all the children in care it was asked to place, the County Council had necessarily to work with external providers. It was vital that it could be confident that external providers were of good quality. 

2.         RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services, to:

a)    approve the approach to the future commissioning of external fostering placements for children and young people aged 0–18 years; and

b)delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, or other nominated officer, to undertake the necessary actions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 208