To approve the direct award of a six month contract for the delivery of children’s centre services in the Bromyard area. The current contractual arrangement ends on 31 March 2018.

Initial commissioning intentions for the Bromyard area for beyond April 2018 were developed in 2017. A six-month extension of service will enable additional work to be undertaken so that a long-term decision can be taken for the delivery of services from October 2018.

1.          Tender the service based on the existing value and service specification. This option is not recommended as the specification dates from 2012 and is no longer current. The specification will, however, be updated to bring it closer to the approaches in the rest of Herefordshire.

2.          Tender the service, or bring it in-house, based on a new value and service specification. This option is not recommend at this time. The additional work to be completed will assist the council to determine the type of service and level of resource required in the long term. This option could, therefore, be appropriate in future.

3.          Cease the provision of children’s centre services in the Bromyard area from 31 March 2018. This option is not recommended because it could negatively impact on the intended beneficiaries and place additional pressure on other services to fill any service gap.