Decision details

The Cabinet Members authorised the extension of current Delegation and Partnering Agreement with Cambridgeshire County Council in order to extend the Section 75 agreements with Cambridgeshire Community Services (CCS) and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (CPFT) Foundation Trust relating to: 
 

      I.        The provision of Health Visiting and Family Nurse Partnership Services, whereby CCS and CPFT will exercise the health-related function to the Local Authorities for the duration of 12 months between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025; and 

    II.        The provision of School Nursing Services, whereby CCS and CPFT will exercise the health-related function to the Local Authorities for the duration of 12 months between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. 

·         Delivery of the 5 mandated contacts within the HCP 0-5 (Health Visiting) service is a statutory responsibility of the Local Authority. 

·         The extension clause is already built into the existing agreement within the ability to be flexible on service delivery and financial contributions, therefore there are no legal implications. 

·         An additional 12 months of current provision will allow officers sufficient time to understand the impact of wider system changes, in-contract learning, and understand the outcomes of planned reviews to the service specification and pathways within this. 

·         The additional time will ensure future commissioning intentions are comprehensively informed and aligned to the national and local context, which will result in overall improvements to service provision. 

Do not approve the continued extension to the delegation of the HCP function to CCC and renewal of the Delegation and Partnering Agreement between CCC and PCC for period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025- This is not considered a viable option as this would mean there would be no governance in place to enable CCC to continue acting as the Lead Commissioner of an Integrated HCP across Cambridgeshire.  

PCC end joint commissioning arrangements with CCC for the provision of HCP services in 2024 - This option was rejected on the following principles: 

·         The integrated partnership arrangement was put in place when significant savings of had to be made (by combining senior management teams and other efficiency sayings) when the service was recommissioned in 2019. Separating out the PCC element would result in increased costs.  

·         The integrated partnership working between CCC, PCC, CCS and CPFT is strong and to break this up would be of significant detriment to service delivery and working relationships 

·         The integrated working model between the two HCP providers has allowed the providers to utilise innovation to better manage demand, increase capacity, improve efficiency and address workforce shortages 

·         There are also in-house efficiencies having to only commission and contract manage one HCP contract across the county than having two separate arrangements in place. 

To conduct a recommissioning exercise in 2023 to implement a new contract across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough from 1^st April 2024 – this is not a recommended option as it does not provide sufficient time to thoroughly conduct the activities outlined in sections 3.2 and 3.3 to ensure a comprehensive service review takes place to inform future commissioning decisions that are aligned to best practice and the local and national context. 

None.

None.