Issue - meetings

This report provides an update on the contract award for future Children and Young People Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) within Kent, previously known as CAMHS.  The Cabinet Committee is asked to comment on and either endorse or make a recommendation to the Cabinet Member on the proposed decision set out in the report.

(1)       Karen Sharp (Head of Public Health Commissioning) and Clare Maynard (Procurement Category Manager, Care) introduced the report which provided an update on the contract award for future Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services within Kent. 

(2)       Miss Maynard said that the procurement process had been completed and that all staff affected would be notified by the following day with a formal communication period commencing the following week.   She said the NHS had requested that the name of the  winning provider be not announced on camera; however the Chairman said that this was a matter of public record and it was unlikely the Cabinet Committee could discuss the report without mentioning it.

(3)       Miss Maynard said the Procurement team had been commissioned by the NHS to manage the procurement of the service; it had been agreed to commission it as an integrated programme with the procurement of the school nursing and wellbeing service; the integrated service would be hosted in the Kent Community Health Foundation Trust in Maidstone; KCC would  contribute £1.2 million annually through a Section 76 agreement;  KCC would have an active part in the ongoing contract management; and the new service would begin on 1 September 2017.

(4)       In response to questions and comments, officers said that the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee as well as this Cabinet Committee would be involved in monitoring key performance indicators relating to the contract; a detailed report would be provided in March 2018 (i.e. six months after the commencement of the contract); the evaluation process had been thorough; and a contract for services in relation to eating disorders was being procured separately by the NHS.

(5)       Members welcomed the contract, the integrated working and the creation of a single point of access. 

(6)       Resolved that the report be noted and that an update report be received six months after the commencement of the contract.