Decision details

The Cabinet Member:

1.      Awarded a contract for the delivery of Emotional Wellbeing/Mental Health Services for Children & Young People in Peterborough & Cambridgeshire for a total value of £2,221,956 from 1 January 2018 until 1 January 2021 and a further option for the Council to extend for two 12 month periods.

2.      Authorised the Corporate Director of People & Communities to extend the contract for a further two 12 month periods at a cost of up to £740,652 per annum, should the Council exercise the option to extend.

The Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Service, as set out within the specification fits into the ‘Getting Help’ quadrant of the iThrive model. This was previously known as Tier 2 provision and has historically been underfunded and characterised by high demand, limited capacity and gaps in provision. This has also contributed to high demand for specialist CAMH interventions at Tier 3.

To date, PCC and CCC have commissioned Tier 2 provision separately resulting in a range of services with slightly differing models and age ranges. We consider there to be gaps in provision for primary school age children and Peterborough currently has no commissioned bereavement counselling. Upper age range differs between 25 in Cambridgeshire and 17 in Peterborough. At present we collectively have contracts in place with 5 suppliers in total and there is a high demand for the provision with some services operating a waiting list. Support for personal, social and health education (PSHE) in schools is included in the list below but is provided in-house by Cambridgeshire County Council at the moment.

The contract will be tri-funded following joint procurement between Peterborough City Council (PCC), Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG will contribute £240,000 per annum (75% allocated to Cambridgeshire and 25% allocated to  Peterborough). CCC will contribute £280,652 per annum and PCC will contribute £220,000 per annum. Therefore the total budget is split on a c.60-40 basis across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough:

The proposed tender has also been to the Commissioning Board at PCC and through the necessary governance at CCC. The agreement made is pursuant to Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006, Localism Act 2011 and other legislation, guidance and rules; this Section 75 has been signed by CCC and the CCG.

Procurement

The 3 organisations (PCC, CCC and the CCG) undertook a joint procurement led by Peterborough City Council (PCC). The contract will be awarded on behalf of the JCU by PCC to a single or lead organisation and overseen by the JCU after award. PCC, CCC and the CCG have jointly signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and later a Section 75 agreement. The signed Section 75 agreement reduced risk liability to PCC as lead organisation, reduced risks to the procurement as a whole, prevented reputational damage to PCC, supported the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) and echo the union across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire

The contract was procured after the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 came into force in March 2015. Subsequently a Competitive Contract Notice was published through the Council’s e-sourcing portal and an open procurement process was undertaken whereby bidders were invited to tender. The procurement process was comprised of the Standard Selection Questionnaire and the Invitation to Tender. The standard Selection Questionnaire gives potential suppliers the opportunity to demonstrate that they do not meet any of the grounds for exclusion; if there any grounds for exclusion suppliers can explain the background and any measures they have taken to rectify the situation. The questions within the Standard Selection Questionnaire are subject to a Pass, Fail or for Information Only criteria. The invitation to tender comprises of 3 word Documents:

·                  Document A – Invitation to Tender 

·                  Document B – Tender Submission – STANDARD SELECTION QUESTIONNAIRE AND AWARD ELEMENT

·                  Document C – Tender Submission – Price and Price Assumptions

Tenderers were required to answer a series of Quality Questions in the form of method statements addressing between them all aspects of the required service. These questions are set out in detail within Invitation to Tender (ITT) Document B, together with a space for Tenderers to insert their responses.  The questions are designed to explore the approach and methodology proposed by each tenderer concerning (amongst other things) how the new service will be implemented and delivered.  Each method statement answer was scored against a quality scoring matrix with a scoring range of 0 to 10 points (10 being the highest).

The Evaluation Panel undertook a desktop evaluation of the ITT questionnaire responses, followed by a moderation process. The tenderers were then invited to present to the Evaluation Panel their proposed service’s response to three case studies. A further moderation process followed this element. The tender submissions were also evaluated on price and pricing assumptions. Tenders were evaluated on a Quality:Cost ratio of 80:20.

Four organisations submitted tenders and were evaluated as follows:

From the evaluation, CHUMS emerged as the winning tender with a total score of 74.11%                      

The following options were considered and rejected:

Option 1 - Continuation of current services. This option was rejected for the following reasons:

a)      Operating six separate services for the delivery of Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health support in different locations does not provide a seamless and consistent service to service users. It reduces access to the services and limits opportunities to improve the Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health of Children and Young People across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.

b)      A retender exercise will generate competition within the market, potentially leading to innovation and better value for money for PCC, CCC and the CCG.

Option 2 - Do not provide a Children and Young People’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health service in Peterborough or Cambridgeshire. This option was rejected as PCC and CCC has a duty of care to commission Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health services for Children and Young People. This option may also result in an increase of the numbers of children and young people experiencing emotional wellbeing or mental health problems. It would also have deleterious effects on those current receiving support from incumbent providers. This would likely increase demand on the Specialist CAMHS services and NHS Emergency Services. Other related services, for both children and young people and adults may be affected, putting further financial pressures on PCC, CCC and the CCG.

None.

None.