Agenda item

Report of the Head Children’s Social Care

The Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Children’s Social Care that sought approval to make  contractual arrangements and the future procurement of statutory adoption related provision on behalf of the Regional Adoption Agency (RAA), known as “Adoption in Merseyside” (AIM), following Sefton being recently nominated as Lead Commissioner for the RAA by the RAA Strategic Board.

Decision Made: That:

(1)      the fact that Sefton has been nominated as the lead commissioner for the new Regional Adoption Agency (Strategic Board) to procure a range of service contracts on behalf of the RAA, be noted;

(2)      authorisation to procure a range of service contracts on behalf of the RAA on behalf of all participating authorities of the RAA, for future purchasing of statutory adoption activity that all parties have agreed should be procured externally from 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2020, be approved;

(3)      authority be delegated to the Head of Children’s Social Care, in consultation with the Cabinet Member – Children, Schools and Safeguarding, to approve the resulting post procurement contract award; and

(4)      it be noted that if any of the current service staff within the existing service contracts under TUPE have an entitlement to LGPS pensions, the Cabinet authorises officers to enter into arrangements to ensure that the new service provider enters into an admissions agreement and bond in relation to the affected staff.

Reasons for Decision:

The establishment of Regional Adoption Agencies (RAA) across the Country will enable the process of adoption for Looked after Children to be streamlined and made more efficient through partnership working. Sefton is working in partnership with three other neighbouring Local Authorities, namely, Liverpool, Knowsley and Wirral to form one of the new Regional Adoption Agencies, and work is advanced towards this new Agency being in place and operational from April 2018.

The new agency will be called AIM – Adoption in Merseyside, and in the interim, a Strategic Board has been established to determine the operational details of the RAA and to determine how it will operate. This includes staffing and who will be hosting the new joint service, and includes managing operational contracts to ensure more efficient procurement of bought in services across all four Authorities, on behalf of the RAA.

The AIM RAA staffing model is still in development and there are final details of partnership working still to conclude in the New Year. However, the Strategic RAA Board has agreed recently for Sefton to take the lead in commissioning new adoption service contracts on behalf of the RAA.

This report is therefore seeking Cabinet approval to enable Sefton’s commissioning officers to act on behalf of the RAA for the future purchasing of statutory adoption activities for the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2020 (2 years) and to commence immediately, a process of procurement for these services, which will involve drawing down existing budgets from across each Local Authority in the RAA.

Currently there are a range of service contracts across all four partners that have been extended until 31 March 2018, and all of these have exhausted the number of extensions permitted.

There are some currently contracted adoption activities, such as Letterbox and Lifebook’s, which it is anticipated would be delivered internally within the new RAA, but it is proposed that procurement of additional activity such as access to records, counselling for birth parents and letterbox is developed within the existing budget to ensure the capacity to meet the RAA’s demand. This is mirrored in existing RAAs where parallel commissioning arrangements are in place.

Alternative Options are Considered and Rejected:

The Strategic RAA Board have considered a number of options for delivery of adoption services including a further extension of existing contracts; Spot purchase activities from 1 April and delivering services mostly in-house. None of these options has proven viable or provide adequate market stability. The favoured option is to procure a single contract with flexibility to meet the demands of the evolving Regional service.