To agree direct award in 2016/17 to Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) for school nursing and health visiting services to enable service redesign, tender and mobilisation following novation of contracts to the council.

The director for adults and wellbeing presented a report to agree a direct award in 2016/17 to the Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) for school nursing and health visiting services to enable service redesign, tender and mobilisation following recent novation of contracts to the council. This was a consequence of the national transfer of responsibility for this service from the NHS to councils, as it had become a public health function instead of a clinical one.

In reply to questions raised by cabinet members, the following points were made:

·         The contract had been delayed, as work had been undertaken to review the needs of the people of Herefordshire for the services and to ensure that those currently commissioned were appropriate.

·         That the contract would be monitored through the council’s contract monitoring team. 

·         That schools did not pay for the school nursing service, but that it was open to schools and colleges to become involved with the procurement process in order to broaden the specifications for the service if they wanted to.

·         That mental health issues for children were being considered as part of the early year’s provision.  This was an area that had been identified as a national issue by a national task group for mental health.

·         That the range of community nurses not involved with schools were unaffected by this contract.

Resolved:

That:

a)    a contract for the health visiting service for a period of 12 months from 1 April 2016 to 31 March  2017 be directly awarded to the current provider, Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT), at a value of £2,341,361 per annum;

b)    a contract for the school nursing service for a period of 12 months from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 be directly awarded to the current  provider, Wye Valley NHS Trust, with the council as an associate commissioner to the Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) contract as per existing arrangements, at a value of £513k per annum; and;

c)    by virtue of this decision report an exemption to paragraph 4.6.13.2 of the council’s contract procedure rules be approved.