Approval is being sought to join the Worcestershire complex needs framework with Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), across the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) health and social care footprint.

Herefordshire Council join the Partnership Agreement which will enable Herefordshire to call off the joint framework and contract with the 11 approved specialist providers on the Complex Needs Framework (CNF) through a spot purchase arrangement from the sign off date to 18 January 2025

1.               To do nothing. This is not recommended. There are currently 16 people known to Herefordshire Council on the Dynamic Support Register (DSR) who may require a specialist accommodation provider now or in the near future. Herefordshire Council has a statutory duty to meet eligible social care needs. To not contract with specialist providers in county will limit opportunities for those people and likely mean out of county solutions are sought or expensive and or restrictive residential accommodation options.

2.               Seek out of county solutions where they already exist with specialist providers. This is not recommended.  This is against the intent of a number of Herefordshire Council strategies including the County Plan (2020-24) and Herefordshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy; where people have access to the right model of support and accommodation in their own communities, reducing inequalities.

3.               Seek placements in residential care as opposed to supported living. This is not recommended. This goes against the county plan and commissioning intentions of seeking least invasive models of support and security of tenure that comes with being a tenant.

4.               Herefordshire to set up its own Complex Needs Framework. This is not recommended due to the small cohort of customers that match the criteria for this service in Herefordshire, which would not attract specialist providers due to low numbers not leading to development of sustainable services.