Issue - meetings

(1)          Mr Gough invited Mrs Chandler (Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services) to introduce the item.  Mrs Chandler said that the Scrutiny Committee’s discussion had focussed on the process followed in making the decision. The needs of the young people of Kent, who needed the service, were foremost in her consciousness when she was making the decision.  Three options had been considered which were firstly to make a short extension to the existing contract, secondly to bring the service in-house and provide it through The Education People (TEP) or thirdly to procure a new contract through a competitive tendering process.  The second option was preferred as the first option could not include the cohort of young people with disabilities or special educational needs. One of the key findings of the Ofsted/CQC inspection of SEND Services in March 2020 was that education services for children with disabilities were not joined up. In addition, it was considered that, although CxK (the current provider) and TEP could submit bids in a competitive tendering process under option 3, the benefits of option 2, where Teckal rules applied, outweighed the benefits of testing the market again.

(2)          Mrs Chandler said it had been anticipated that the proposed decision would have been discussed at the Children, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee (CYPE) scheduled for May 2020 and the papers would have been published at the end of April.  This meeting had been cancelled and the papers were not published until 13 May in accordance with the pre-Proposed Record of Decision process established in response to the coronavirus pandemic.  CxK had been advised in September 2019 and in January 2020 that the contract would terminate on 30 September 2020 and had been advised of the delay to the decision-making process in April 2020.

(3)          Stuart Collins (Director of Integrated Children’s Services) said he would focus on answering questions and concerns raised at the Scrutiny Committee meeting on 23 June 2020.  In addressing the Committee’s concerns about transparency in the decision-making process, he said that CxK had been informed, in writing, in September 2019 about a proposed contract extension with the current contract ending on 30 September 2020.  Further discussion with CxK took place during routine, formal contract management meetings and CXK were advised again in January 2020 that the existing contract would end in September 2020.  Notice of the forthcoming decision was published in February 2020 and it had been planned that a report on the proposed decision relating to the delivery of the NEET service would be presented at the CYPE meeting in May with the papers for that meeting being published at the end of April.  He reiterated the points made by Mrs Chandler about the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on the decision-making process including the fact that  papers relating to the decision were not published until May.  No additional information was provided to CxK at that time because a decision had not been made about whether to utilise Teckal regulations or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 153