Service Reviews – Outline Business Case - Somerset County Council

(Cabinet – 2 May 2012)
free to provide.
• The entire service can be evaluated against
current market rates, potentially resulting in
the service being outsourced at a lower cost
than the current LDPS budget.
• There is a reduced risk of service failure
subject to adopting a robust and wellmanaged
tender process, eliminating any
“weak” bidders at the outset.
• Would be a single-step approach.
• A lead provider could sub contact. This
would facilitate the participation of small
providers that might otherwise be “crowded
out” by Option C, externalisation.
• Would allow the service to rapidly adopt
best practice from the successful bidder
• Outsourcing the LDPS as a whole would
provide opportunities to reduce operational
overheads as bidders would be likely to
already have resources that could be
extended, allowing the overheads to be
shared across a broader range of services,
rather than newly established.
• We would expect to favour bids that include
opportunities for external capital investment.
• While the tender process for a large
outsourcing exercise is complex and time
consuming SCC would avoid potential ongoing
complications relating to the Teckal
exemption.
• A competitive tendering process should
encourage cost efficient bids that drive out
savings. The tender and evaluation process
would ensure that these were sustainable.
to carefully involve people who use the
service and carers at all stages of the tender
and evaluation process, it is estimated that
the implementation would take a minimum
of 1 year
• There are significant and complex property
issues, and options to address the
associated cost and risk factors need to be
developed as part of the full business case.
• Robust monitoring arrangements will need
to be to be in place to protect vulnerable
customers and provide reassurance to
carers, many of whom expressed concern
about the potential involvement of a “private
for profit” provider in the provision of care
and support for their loved ones during initial
feedback meetings.
• There is a potential risk of a service provider
offering vacancies in supported living
accommodation to people currently living
outside of the County, ultimately leading to
funding becoming SCC’s responsibility
under ordinary residency rules. There could
also be additional costs falling on NHS
Somerset. There may be opportunities to
mitigate these risks through SCC’s interest
in the property assets utilised by the LDPS
which need consideration within the
development of the full business case.
• Contracting with a single provider for these
services, which currently account for over
half of the expenditure, may limit choice and
service quality unless robust contract
management processes are put in place and
adequately resourced.
• A full reassessment of all residential care
and supported living care packages will
need to be undertaken in advance of any
transfer in order to mitigate some, but not
all, risks related to cost escalation. This will
incur additional costs.
• In the short-term at least there would be
double funding of overheads, including
some of those associated with Southwest
One where they relate to activity that is not
releasable.
Stakeholder engagement activities have been held to inform the development of this
Outline Business Case. The preferred option was:-
• From service users: - There was no clear preferred option, however, the most
important issue was that the staff that support them stay the same.
A - 9