DECISION

1.    To agree that the domiciliary care services previously provided by Majlish Homecare Services, and currently directly provided by the Council, be included in the scope of the domiciliary care services tender to be advertised in January 2016;

2.    To authorise the Acting Director of Adults’ Services following consultation with the Director of Law, Probity and Governance and Monitoring Officer to enter into any necessary negotiations and other processes required by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations regarding the transfer of any persons deemed to be employees employed by the Council for the provision of the service as at the date of transfer, to those providers from whom services are subsequently commissioned.

3.    To authorise the Acting Director of Adults’ Services following consultation with the Corporate Director of Resources, Director of Law Probity and Governance and Monitoring Officer to enter into all necessary negotiations with a view to reach agreement with workers in the service in respect of any continuous period of employment proposed to be offered to them by the Council until such time as the tender process is complete and any employees are transferred to new employers.

4.    To note the intention that the tender process referred to in recommendation 1 above is the means by which a range of contractual requirements will be introduced with the express aim of improving the terms and conditions of individuals who will be employed to deliver the service by the successful bidders in line with the Mayoral commitment to explore how to introduce the Ethical Care Charter into domiciliary care services in the borough.

Action by:

ACTING DIRECTOR, ADULT’S SERVICES (L. ADDAMS)

(Acting Service Head, Commissioning and Health (K. Sugars)

Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs, Cabinet Member for Health and Adults’ Services, introduced the report on future commissioning arrangements for certain domiciliary care services. She highlighted that a similar report had been presented at the last Cabinet meeting where the decision had been taken to reject four listed options and to either select Option A or Option B. Details were provided in the report.

She recommended that Option B be chosen for the reasons set out in the new report.

The Mayor confirmed that there had been a number of discussions about this issue and that, whilst Option A had some merits, Option B was recommended as the safe option at the current time. He therefore agreed the recommendations as set out in the report.

RESOLVED

1.    To agree that the domiciliary care services previously provided by Majlish Homecare Services, and currently directly provided by the Council, be included in the scope of the domiciliary care services tender to be advertised in January 2016;

2.    To authorise the Acting Director of Adults’ Services following consultation with the Director of Law, Probity and Governance and Monitoring Officer to enter into any necessary negotiations and other processes required by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations regarding the transfer of any persons deemed to be employees employed by the Council for the provision of the service as at the date of transfer, to those providers from whom services are subsequently commissioned.

3.    To authorise the Acting Director of Adults’ Services following consultation with the Corporate Director of Resources, Director of Law Probity and Governance and Monitoring Officer to enter into all necessary negotiations with a view to reach agreement with workers in the service in respect of any continuous period of employment proposed to be offered to them by the Council until such time as the tender process is complete and any employees are transferred to new employers.

4.    To note the intention that the tender process referred to in recommendation 1 above is the means by which a range of contractual requirements will be introduced with the express aim of improving the terms and conditions of individuals who will be employed to deliver the service by the successful bidders in line with the Mayoral commitment to explore how to introduce the Ethical Care Charter into domiciliary care services in the borough.

The recommendations were amended and then agreed.

DECISION

1.    Following review of the options presented to confirm the rejection of options C to F as set out in Paragraph 4, Appendix 1 to the report.

2.    To defer a decision on whether to agree either Option A or Option B (as set out in Paragraph 4, Appendix 1 to the report) subject to further discussion with the intention of co-ordinating a final decision with the proposal to retender all commissioned domiciliary care activity to be presented at the next Cabinet meeting.

3.    To note the Exempt/Confidential Appendix to the report.

Action by:

DIRECTOR, ADULT SERVICES (L. ADDAMS)

(Interim Service Head, Commissioning and Health (K. Sugars)

Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Services introduced the report. She provided a summary of the recent history of the service and the uncertainty being created for staff and service users by delays in progressing the decision over the previous year. Six options were presented in the report as were related legal and financial risks.

She recommended that options C to F be rejected as not being practical or feasible in the current circumstances as well as not providing best value. This would leave options A and B. She proposed that following the legal advice set out in the Exempt/Confidential Appendix that the decision on which of those two options to choose be deferred to the January Cabinet meeting to allow further consideration of the issues.

A public submission had been received which asked why service users were not able to choose to switch to other care agencies and whether the Council was preventing service users from choosing high quality alternatives.

In response it was explained that anyone with a personal budget should be able to choose a provider themselves. It was agreed that the delay in updating the commissioned supplier list was frustrating but that the Council was committed to retendering that list.

The Mayor thanked everyone for their contributions and highlighted that residents were welcome to alert him to specific issues. He agreed with Councillor Amy Whitelock Gibbs’ proposal to reject options C to F and to defer a decision on options A and B to the next meeting.

RESOLVED

1.    Following review of the options presented to confirm the rejection of options C to F as set out in Paragraph 4, Appendix 1 to the report.

2.    To defer a decision on whether to agree either Option A or Option B (as set out in Paragraph 4, Appendix 1 to the report) subject to further discussion with the intention of co-ordinating a final decision with the proposal to retender all commissioned domiciliary care activity to be presented at the next Cabinet meeting.

3.    To note the Exempt/Confidential Appendix to the report.