To approve the commissioning intentions for the 0-19 years Healthy Child Programme providing early help and prevention for children and young people aged 0-19 years and up to 25 for disabled young people and people with additional health needs. The 0-19 years service currently encompasses health visiting and school nursing and an approach which supports greater integration with children’s centre services, early years and early help services as part of the children’s transformation programme.

That the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Wellbeing agrees

a)    To procure a new 0-19 years’ Healthy Child Programme via competitive tender for a period of up to seven years (5 plus 2 years).  To commence on 1 April 2024 at an additive cost not exceeding £17,108,889 (7 years).

b)    The Director of Public Health in consultation with the Corporate Directors for Community Wellbeing and Children & Young People, to take all necessary operational decisions including service redesign and tender process and award of contract.

1.            To extend the current contract. This is not advised as this could be viewed as anti-competitive because the five year contract has already been extended by a further 12 month period until 31 March 2024. The provider has been subject to a formal improvement plan for this service during 2021/22.

2.            To make a direct award to the incumbent provider for continuation of the service. This is not advised as this would be in breach of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (PCR2015) for local authorities. There is also a potential risk of challenge as four other providers expressed interest in submitting a bid for the contract during the soft market testing exercise, undertaken during 2021/22.

3.            To award the contract through a Section 75 agreement. Options available to the council to do this:

3.1  Lead Commissioning - the partners can agree to delegate commissioning of a service to one lead organisation to be commissioned by it alongside its own, but not necessarily unless they wish, as a part of a pooled fund.

3.2  Pooled Funds - the ability for partners each to contribute agreed funds to a single pot, to be spent on agreed projects for designated services delivery and without a boundary between LA and NHS care.

3.3  Integrated Provision - the partners can join together their staff, resources, and management structures to integrate the provision of a service at a managerial level or all of the way down to the front line functions of staff being integrated.

4      None of the options (paras 3 to 3.3) allow a ‘direct award’ of the provision of the service to the NHS and is not advised.  Pooled funding and integrated services would require consultation with the various affected parties and decisions from cabinet or full council to enable the integration of the services. Regulation 75 is about partnering and the joining together of services, not the award of a contract for services. As there is more than one possible supplier of these services the Public Contract Regulation 2015 would still apply.