Decision details

The Cabinet Member approved the award of a place on a framework contract, for the provision of Day Opportunities for adult social care service users with learning disabilities, to the following providers:

The Helping Hands Group

Papworth Trust

Sense

Thera East Anglia

Turning Point

Voyage Care

The framework contract  will run from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2020 and have an estimated total value of £3,000,000.

Background

The Council has existing 112 individual contracts for directly commissioned day opportunity services.  The existing contracts were awarded as individual contracts in an earlier decision dated 31 March 2014. Each existing contract expired on September 5 2015 and was subsequently extended on the basis that  the Council would implement a framework arrangement through means of a competitive tender.                  

Procurement

  The ITT consisted of two elements weighted as follows:

·         Response to Tender Requirement Questionnaire - 70%

·         Price Assumptions - 30% for the assumptions underpinning the proposed financial model

The Evaluation Panel undertook a desktop evaluation of the ITT questionnaire responses, followed by clarification questions being submitted to the bidders and finally a moderation process.  In order to be awarded a place on the framework the bidders had to score a total of 55% or above.  

The pass mark was achieved or exceeded by 6 organisations:

·         The Helping Hands Group

·         Papworth Trust

·         Sense

·         Thera East Anglia

·         Turning Point

·         Voyage Care

The following options were considered and rejected:

Option 1 - Continuation of current services.  This option has been rejected because the original decision to award 112 individual contracts was only for a period of 12 months.  These contracts were awarded for 12 months on the basis that a tender process would happen during the 12 month period.  It would therefore be contravening the prerequisite of awarding the current contracts if they were to be extended or renewed.

Option 2 - Do not commission Day Opportunities for people with learning disabilities.  The option to not directly commissioning the provision of day opportunities, thereby requiring eligible service users to purchase these themselves through means of utilising their personal budget as a direct payment, was considered and rejected. The rationale for rejecting this option was that both the market as a whole, and the majority of service users, are not in a position to make this a viable option.  The Council has a responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to promote diversity and quality in provision of services.  Commissioning the framework agreement helps the Council to work towards this by providing service users with a variety of high quality services to choose from.

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