Customer Care and Complaints Service
Adults and Children's Services Directorates
Southampton City Council
8th Floor, Marland House
SOUTHAMPTON SO14 7PQ
Please ask for: Mark Oliphant FOI Ref: FOI/1213/790
Direct dial: 023 8083 3154 Fax: 023 8083 3815
Email:
Mr Daniel Ball 14 February 2013
Dear Mr Ball
Information Request
I refer to your Freedom of Information request of 29 January 2013 in relation to commissioning services for adults and children's social services.
Your request was:
Please answer the following questions for your adults and children's departments:
Adults
• Who is your main contact for Commissioning Services for Adult Social Care?
Matthew Waters, Commissioner for Supporting People and Adult Care Services
Carole Binns, Service Manager for Mental Health and Substance Misuse
Kate Dench, Learning Disability Joint Commissioning Manager
• Do you currently use an IT system to support your contract management? If Yes please name the system and suppliers ?
No, except for Supporting People. This is SPOCC and is supplied by Oxford Computer Consultants.
• How much does this IT system cost, when did you sign up for the contract and how long was the contract?
£10,814.40 for Maintenance and support in the current financial year, plus development costs for upgrades (if required). The contract is a rolling annual arrangement.
• Once service users are assessed, what is the split between self-funders and people reliant on the local authority to pay for their care (full or part)?
Southampton City Council does not collect this information and we are therefore unable to provide you with any information for this part of your request.
• Do you provide brokerage services for self/part funders?
Yes
• Do you use/plan to use micro-procurement/commissioning?
We do not use this currently. There are no plans in place to use micro-procurement/commissioning.
• Do private brokers operate in your area?
Yes
• How do you currently procure your services, please provide information of the split between the following methods? e.g. via commissioning teams, social workers do it themselves, panels for expensive care packages ,micro-procurement/commissioning, personalisation/self-directed support
Block contracts – 35%
Frameworks, ToI and Spot Purchase – 58%
personalisation/self-directed support – 7%
• What is the proportion of the above? Please provide me with an estimated split between all of your service types
As Above
• How many providers do you contract with and are they internal/external?
providers in total – 1,662
Internal provider (SCC) - 1
• How many contracts and of what type does your councils manage in the commissioning of adult social care services? e.g. is it referrals to in-house services, predominantly spot purchasing, purchasing under framework contracts/agreements, block contracts or cost and volume contracts
Block – 63
Framework – 25
Lease/LTO – 10
Health Act – 23
S113 – 7
ToI/Spot Purchased – 1,534
• Do you have a performance management framework for monitoring the performance of providers? If so then would it be possible to forward or provide a link to it.
We have a range of performance monitoring systems and requirements dependant upon the specific services. There is no single framework, although this is currently under development.
Children’s
• Who is your main contact for Commissioning Services for Children’s Services?
Tim Davis, Senior Manager, Commissioning, Planning and Performance
• Do you currently use an IT system to support your contract management? If Yes please name the system?
No
• How much does this IT system cost, when did you sign up for the contract and how long was the contract?
N/A
• How do you currently procure your services for Children’s Social Care, please provide information of the split between the following methods e.g. via commissioning teams, social workers do it themselves, panels for expensive care packages, micro-procurement/commissioning
Children’s Social Care (Safeguarding) is procured via a number of methods:
Lead Commissioner for Safeguarding procures and contract manages a number of services including services for disabled children and young people and Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs).
Resource panels, which include social workers and multi-agency colleagues spot purchase bespoke high-need placements
Personal budgets for service users are being explored as part of the SEN Pathfinder.
• What is the proportion of the above?
Of our social care packages (placements for looked after children):
70% are commissioned from in-house providers;
21% from IFAs
9% are in guardian-ships, extended family
• Do you use/plan to use micro-procurement/commissioning?
For the purposes of this question, micro-commissioning has been interpreted as personal budgets.
We have some clients where personal budgets are being used, and are increasingly trialling this approach through the SEN Pathfinder programme.
• How many providers do you contract with and are they internal/external?
The Lead Commissioner for Children and Young Peoples Safeguarding manages Agreements with:
27 IFA providers
12 providers for non children looked after/residential services.
• How many contracts and of what type does your councils manage in the commissioning of Children’s social care services? e.g. is it referrals to in-house services, predominantly spot purchasing, purchasing under framework contracts/agreements, block contracts or cost and volume contracts
We use a number of Framework Agreements, Service Block Contracts and spot purchasing Agreements
27 Agreements with IFA providers
14 Service Agreements with Voluntary Sector Providers
• Do you have a performance management framework for monitoring the performance of providers? If so then would it be possible to forward a copy or provide a link to it.
I can confirm that the City Council holds this information. The information is exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), because the information is accessible to you, as it is already in the public domain
We use a performance management framework for our IFA providers, which can be found here:
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/business/supply-southampton/ifa_south_central.aspx
If you do not have internet access, you may either use the facilities at your local library or at the Council offices reception. However, if this is not convenient to you, please contact me again and I will supply a copy of the information. There may be a charge for providing this copy.
Your request has been responded to below:
All material supplied to you including, layout, presentation, text, logos, icons, photos, and all material is copyright © Southampton City Council (date documents produced), unless otherwise stated. Please note that the Council cannot guarantee the accuracy of information supplied.
Use of any material supplied in response to your Freedom of Information request including reproduction or transmission in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored on any retrieval system of any nature of any material contained in these pages may not be made without permission. No use of any material is authorised without the express written permission of the Solicitor to the Council. The supply of documents does not give you an automatic right to re-use the documents in a way that would infringe copyright.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed to: Corporate Complaints Officer, Corporate Policy and Performance Division, Southampton City Council, Civic Centre, Southampton SO14 7LT; email: .
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Tel: 0303 123 1113, Fax: 01625 524510; email:
Yours sincerely
Mark Oliphant
Freedom of Information Co-ordinator
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