Agenda item
Home Care Transformation and Re-procurement
Minutes:
The Board received a presentation and a report providing an update on the work being carried out on the Home Care re-procurement programme. The main points raised during the discussion may be summarised as follows:
The Board:
v Noted that the adult social care system could not survive without the contribution of paid and unpaid carers who provide vital support for thousands of people every day and preventing people having to go into primary care.
v Noted that the Safeguarding Adults Board in its focus to ensure that safeguarding arrangements in the Borough work effectively has a particular interest in care at home and the quality-of-care services.
v Agreed that with regard to the paid care workforce there is need for a review on pay, training and development, career progression and professionalisation and recognition.
v Agreed that any service provider needed to the based locally and to provide local jobs and making a real contribution to the local economy.
v Noted that within the re-procurement programme (i) contract management has been strengthened; (ii) hospital discharges are to work as smoothly as possible; and (iii) reviews are now happening in a timely way.
v Agreed that (i) it had a key role as an anchor institution to support communities and home care providers in Tower Hamlets; and (ii) the Tower Hamlets Carers Centre can facilitate the identification of carers, improve care, and support and increase public confidence in care.
v Observed that many carers do not think of themselves as carers or are not identified by health and social care professionals as such (so called ‘hidden carers’) and do not know about the support available to them.
v Noted that feedback from various sources has indicated that partnership working has vastly improved since the advent of locality working with improved collaborative working and innovation that has made best use of the assets available in the Borough. This has built relationships and enabled key information to be routinely shared as necessary amongst stakeholders. This has led to improved quality of care and better outcomes for service users, where this model works.
v Agreed that effective coproduction is critical to set the right delivery and contractual model to provide the right care, at the right time, which supports people to be as independent as possible.
v Observed that there are a range of new market developments resulting from Covid-19 and a number of new models of Home Care that are now in place across the country.
v Agreed that it is important that we consider these developments carefully and capture them in the new contractual arrangements and was pleased to note that work in the Borough is helping to identify best practice and viable models that could be a good fit for Tower Hamlets.
v Noted that there may be a potential to link Service Provider payments to the achievement of desired contract outcomes. Whilst these arrangements need to be carefully considered they can incentivise better performance and alignment of Council and Service Provider objectives e.g. Nottinghamshire has introduced a payment system based on outcomes with 95% of the commissioned hours paid with the remaining 5% based on achievement of individual outcomes.
The Chair Moved and it was: -
RESOLVED
1. To note the presentation; and
2. To agree that consideration should be given to the development of appropriate milestones in regard to the Home Care re-procurement programme.
Supporting documents:
-
HWBB_Home Care reprocurement (1), item 1.5
PDF 121 KB
-
HWBB_home care_slides (2), item 1.5
PDF 371 KB