DECISION

1.    To agree to the Borough becoming a member of the jointly owned Pan London Vehicle for Commissioning.

a.    The Pan London Vehicle (“PLV”) will be a company limited by guarantee (“CLG”) and owned by the London local authorities. The PLV will not be focussed on profit generation, and it is intended that any surplus generated by the PLV will be reinvested into its activities.

b.    Be part of the PLV, secure children’s home provision for a five-year period from 1^st April 2023 to 31^st March 2028, with a break-point after two years once the refreshed business case has been developed to include service pricing structure, commissioning approach, practice model and location, the 20k per year membership payable for five years, has now been removed for the development stage (first two years) of the PLV, which will be funded by the Department of Education grant.

c.     Collaborate with other PLV members on future joint commissioning programmes.

d.    Commits in principle to joint oversight and risk/benefit sharing, through the PLV, of the secure children’s home provision, for a five-year period to 31^st March 2028, including the build, service development and service commissioning phases, subject to ratification after the revision of the secure children’s home business case, and renewable on a ten yearly cycle thereafter, with break-point after five years.

e.    Delegates authority to the Corporate Director, Children and Culture, in consultation with The Mayor to:

f.      finalise the legal documents required to set up, join and run the PLV and

g.    make the final determination on the Council’s membership of the PLV, following completion of the revised secure children’s home business case and, if appropriate, enter into all the legal agreements, contracts and other documents on behalf of the Council required to implement and run any aspect of the PLV arrangements.

2.    To note the Equalities Impact Assessment as set out in Section 4 of the report.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, CHILDREN AND CULTURE (J. THOMAS)

Senior Commissioning Manager Integrated Commissioning (K. Sanderson)

Councillor Maium Talukdar, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning (Statutory Deputy Mayor) introduced the report which proposed that a pan-London company be established to oversee the development and running of new secure children’s home provision. Councillor Talukdar highlighted the relatively high cost of providing this service to the current 15 children from the Borough with such complex needs. He suggested the proposal presented an opportunity for longer-term savings

In response to questions from Cabinet members, Susannah Beasley-Murray, Divisional Director of Supporting Families) provided further detail on the Council’s financial commitments to the proposed company. Susannah noted that the Council’s financial contribution would not be required until the third year of the contract when the proposed facility would become operational and all capital costs were to be met by the Department for Education.

Mayor welcomed the report, in particular the pan-London partnership approach which he hoped would increase the quality of secure home provision to some of London’s most vulnerable residents. Following discussion he agreed the recommendations as set out in the report.

RESOLVED

1.    To agree to the Borough becoming a member of the jointly owned Pan London Vehicle for Commissioning.

a.    The Pan London Vehicle (“PLV”) will be a company limited by guarantee (“CLG”) and owned by the London local authorities. The PLV will not be focussed on profit generation, and it is intended that any surplus generated by the PLV will be reinvested into its activities.

b.    Be part of the PLV, secure children’s home provision for a five-year period from 1^st April 2023 to 31^st March 2028, with a break-point after two years once the refreshed business case has been developed to include service pricing structure, commissioning approach, practice model and location, the 20k per year membership payable for five years, has now been removed for the development stage (first two years) of the PLV, which will be funded by the Department of Education grant.

c.    Collaborate with other PLV members on future joint commissioning programmes.

d.    Commits in principle to joint oversight and risk/benefit sharing, through the PLV, of the secure children’s home provision, for a five-year period to 31^st March 2028, including the build, service development and service commissioning phases, subject to ratification after the revision of the secure children’s home business case, and renewable on a ten yearly cycle thereafter, with break-point after five years.

e.    Delegates authority to the Corporate Director, Children and Culture, in consultation with The Mayor to:

                                                  i.    finalise the legal documents required to set up, join and run the PLV and

                                                ii.    make the final determination on the Council’s membership of the PLV, following completion of the revised secure children’s home business case and, if appropriate, enter into all the legal agreements, contracts and other documents on behalf of the Council required to implement and run any aspect of the PLV arrangements.

2.    To note the Equalities Impact Assessment as set out in Section 4 of the report.