Agenda item

Report of the Head of Health and Wellbeing

The Cabinet considered the report of the Head of Health and Wellbeing advising that in July 2016, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust was awarded a contract to provide Adult Substance Use: Assessment, Treatment and Recovery Services with effect from 1 October 2016. The contract was awarded for three and a half years with an option to extend for up to a further two years. Consideration was now required on exercising continuation options as the core contract was due to expire on 31 March 2020.

Decision Made:

That delegated authority be granted to the Director of Public Health, in consultation with the Cabinet Member - Health and Wellbeing, to exercise the option to combine both twelve-month extension / continuation options and exercise an extension to the existing contract for a period of two years from 1April 2020.

Reasons for the Decision:

For the past two and a half years, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust has provided Adult Substance Use: Assessment, Treatment and Recovery Services and has made significant improvements in both the effectiveness of treatment delivery and the reliability of data recording and reporting. The service has demonstrated an overall improvement in the numbers of people successfully engaged and completing treatment with abstinence rates for opiates, crack cocaine and alcohol all within the expected range as calculated by the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS). Local treatment engagement rates for opiates, crack cocaine and alcohol use all exceed national rates while no clients have waited longer than three weeks to receive an intervention.

Public Health Commissioners have no concerns over the quality, performance or governance of the current service.  Moreover, the above recommendation would provide a longer period of service stability and enable the service to further develop and consolidate important collaborative projects that have been recently initiated. The option would also reduce cost to the Council from engaging in an early procurement exercise.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

i)           Exercise one year extension / continuation option. This option would provide a degree of continuity and stability. However, any continuity / stability derived from exercising this option would be limited to twelve months at which point the Council would still need to consider exercising the second extension / continuation option or re-tender the service.

ii)          Conducting a full procurement exercise would not bring about any significant benefits for Sefton Council, health and social care partners or for users of the substance use service.

Considerable savings were realised throughout the 2016 procurement exercise with a contract value reduced from £3,599,574 per year to £3,276,454 per year. The contract was awarded following robust assessment and evaluation procedures and it was clear that there were only a limited number of acceptable options available within the open market. Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is a large local health care provider and is able to draw on a variety of specialist services within the Trust to further compliment service provision, including community mental health and psychology services. Moreover, recent innovative collaborative projects between Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trusts’ Substance Use Service, Ambition Sefton and the Trusts Life Room facilities, as well as with Sefton Council Housing Options Team, are showing extremely encouraging outcomes with the option to firm up these arrangements via contract variations should an extension be authorised.