Agenda and minutes

Mr Gough set out the reasons for the meeting of Cabinet today. He said that the Scrutiny Committee, at its meeting on 23rd June 2020, had carried a motion, by 6 votes to 5 with 1 abstention, to refer the key decision 20/00017 regarding the NEETs Support Service to Cabinet for re-consideration and discussion with the Lead Member with a view to confirming, rescinding or amending that decision.   The Scrutiny Committee had also asked that the decision-maker provide a written statement of the re-considered decision to all Members of the Council. Mr Gough said that the implications on the timescales for the implementation of the decision had an impact on the current contract, which was scheduled to end on 30th September 2020 and there was a need  therefore to provide clarity for the provider organisation, its staff and the young people accessing the current NEET service.  He also referred to the potential for activity to pick up when schools returned in September and the importance that any transitions for staff employed under the current contract and young people supported by the current provider were robustly managed. Mr Gough concluded by saying that the meeting of Cabinet today had been arranged to enable it to consider, debate and review the decision in a timely manner.

No apologies for absence were received.

There were no declarations of interest.

(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.