To agree a direct award for the licence of an assessment and resource allocation system to support the personal budget programme for five years to commence from 1 January 2018.

That:

(a)  Imosphere to be directly awarded a contract to provide licenses to enable use of the existing resource allocation system for a period of five years from 1 January 2018 at a total contract value of £154,203.

The council has developed its own internal software which interfaces with both Mosaic (the council’s care management system) and FACE systems. This software has been developed over a three year period and provides the council with an internal product which is exclusive to Herefordshire. The Herefordshire system is co-dependent upon the two other IT systems and there are no providers in the market who could provide the same service without an initial development period. The current development time with the existing contractor has been three years.

The initial contract provided Herefordshire with the licence product, but this has grown and become interdependent with the council’s systems and care management provider. These developments could not have been foreseen at the time the original license contract was awarded.

Not purchase a licence to support the FACE resource allocation system (RAS). This is not recommended as individual budgets are integral to the care assessment process. The licence enables the council to operate using a consistent framework which assesses people's unmet eligible social care support needs and provides a systematic approach through a series of forms and spreadsheets. Developers have then taken the algorithm from behind the spreadsheet and developed a script that can be used within Mosaic, to produce indicative personal budgets.  The RAS sets the individual budget against the assessment of individual needs, and social care services are purchased against the individual budget. This capability is imperative and to not have it would leave the council processes vulnerable to system failure of both ability to generate costed assessments and of financial management and governance. The care assessment function is a statutory duty of the council.

To procure a new provider. This is not recommended due to:

·         The care management system supplier, Mosaic, has stated its product is not compatible with any other suppliers who deliver a similar service. As such, not to renew this licence would leave the council vulnerable as stated above.

·         A change of product would be a disinvestment in the council’s existing systems, which have developed in tandem with the current supplier’s IT systems over a three year period.

·         There is no guarantee that a new supplier would bring in a system which is compatible with the Mosaic care management system.

·         The system offered by a new provider might not be compatible with the internal system the council has developed to deliver a complex set of algorithms which produce a smooth operating system for operational services via an instant RAS. This is unique to Herefordshire due to internal development with the other two parts of the system.

·         The current IT tools which sit within the software licencing have been co-produced to support the new adult social care pathway. A new system might not be able to offer this alignment.

·         Costs would be incurred both in time and productivity with any system changes to   over 120 operational staff, which would require training and a different way of working.

To extend the current contract for one year. This is not recommended due to:

·         The financial costs to the council. To procure one year at a time is more expensive, and a five year contract will result in a 10% discount.

·         The market is limited and the risk of another provider not being able to deliver, due to the complexities of the co-dependencies within two existing systems, within a mobilisation timescale, are high.

·         A five year contract sets the council’s intention of the development of the strengths based pathway and the technical solutions required to support it.

To continue with the current licence reduces the financial costs to the council. To procure one year at a time is more expensive, whereas a five year contract will result in a 10% discount.