Decision details

The Council currently commissions Lifeline to provide adult substance misuse services and their 2 year contract expires at the end of September 2015. A decision must be made by the end of March 2015 at the latest on whether the contract should be extended for a further 12 months. This will provide Lifeline with the minimum 6 months notice period.

An evaluation of the current provision needs to be undertaken during February/March 2015 to inform the final recommendation and decision on future commissioning of the service; and it is anticipated that an evaluation team comprising: public health, contracts, finance, legal will consider the following points:

• Performance against agreed KPIs
• Complaints and compliments received by service users and stakeholders, including      provider response and implementation of learning
• Partnership and pathway development
• Client engagement
• Children’s and adult safeguarding
• Clinical governance and patient safety

The following will also be considered:

• market of alternative providers
• financial cost of re-commissioning
• impact on clients, provider and other stakeholders of changing provider

The Cabinet considered the report of the Director of Public Health which provided details of the key findings of the Adult Substance Misuse Contract review.

Decision Made:

The contract of Lifeline to provide Adult Substance Misuse services in Sefton be extended for an additional 12 months until 30September 2016.

Reasons for Decision:

Since taking over the contract 18 months ago the provider had addressed underperformance. Further time was required to see the full benefits of changes in the service model.

The current contract expired at the end of September 2015. Adecision must be made by the end of March 2015 at the latest on whether the contract should be extended or retendered. This would provide Lifeline with the minimum 6 months notice period.

The contract was originally awarded for 2 years with the option to extend annually up to 3 years. This was therefore an extension within the existing contract.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

Extend contract for a longer time period. - A longer extension would require measurable improvements over the next 12 months.

Retender. - The current provider had only been in place for 18 months and changing providers in such a short time was likely to cause disruption to the care of clients and confusion within the network of substance misuse partners, i.e. primary care, acute services, residential rehabilitation and detoxification agencies.