Procurement of Care and Support Services

Development Group meeting – 11 October 2010

Outline of meeting and actions

Attendees

Mike Martin, Joint Improvement Team

Alex Davidson, Joint Improvement Team

Susan Duncan, Scottish Procurement Directorate (SPD)

Ron Culley, CoSLA

Rosie Lawrence, Social Work Inspection Agency

Dorothy Cowie, ScotlandExcel

Douglas Erdman, ADSW / Renfrewshire Council

Annie Gunner Logan, Community Care Providers Scotland

Marcia Ramsay, Care Commission

Sandy Cruickshank, ADSW / South Lanarkshire Council

Florence Burke, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers

1Welcome / Introductions

Mike Martin, welcomed and introduced all members

2Comments / feedback on final guidance

Important to recognise the ongoing connections and complex issues associated with Self Directed Support
The guidance was warmly welcomed

3Remit and Membership

The Development Group’s role will be to identify individuals to undertake implementation projects and it will maintain an ongoing relationship with the Reference Group
Important to recognise issues connected with children and families in the scope of work implementing the guidance
Members of the Development Group would ensure that the improvement work does not duplicate work of existing related groups (e.g. - SDS implementation group, other procurement and commissioning groups)
The Project Co-ordinator role will be performed by Mike Martin with support from Alex Davidson, but other members are welcome to take on the role in the future.

4Draft Work Programme – consideration and allocation of tasks

Good Practice examples

-Action Point - Alex Davidson, Annie Gunner Logan, Nick Kempe and Florence Burke all volunteered to develop proposals of what a good practice example would look like and bring suggestions to the next Development Group meeting.

-It is important that good practice examples are tested and validated by all involved

-Helpful to cross refer good practice examples to the key pinch points identified in the Guidance

-Tender evaluation and decisions to the continuation of an existing service are important issues to prioritise

-See “Decision making in relation to the continuation of an existing service” for further related discussion

-See “Contract monitoring and review / Scrutiny of procurement activity” for further related discussion

Training

-Scotland Excel’s paper on learning and developmentwas discussed.

-As proposed in this paper, a Learning and Development working group willbe established to consider learning and development needs more widely.

-Action Point - A questionnaire will be used to establish the current position and training need and to perform a skills audit, Sandy agreedthis questionnaire could (should helpful) be issued through ADSWcontracts group

-Important to clarify relationship with existing training provision including CIPS and training which providers are delivering

-Important that any new training provision does not create a new specialism, training needs to focus on the needs of the organisation.

-Helpful to use all relevant intelligence including reports from the recent experiences of City of Edinburgh Council

-It would be helpfulto include a representative from SOLAR on the Learning and Development working group and to get the input from users and providers

-Action Point - Development Group members were asked to feedback any additional views on the draft Learning and Development paper to Nick Kempe

Self Directed Support (SDS)

-Important to flag up to the SDS implementation group that procurement is a key issue

-Agenda item - Group agreed that the connection between SDS and procurement is an important issue, Nick Kempe is preparing a paper on issues, and Ron Culley has been closely involved. it was agreed that a final version of this paper will be circulated to the group and this issue will be discussed more substantively at the next meeting.

-See further discussion at “Collaborative procurement”

Decision making in relation to the continuation of an existing service

-It was felt that SOLAR input on these considerations would be valuable

-This was agreed as a priority and a challenging area for consideration and should be addressed through the development of best practice examples.

-Quality and monitoring are important issues to better inform the decision to re-tender or not.

-The Manchester City Council model which was developed to prioritise those procurement exercises which were due for re-tendering could be useful learning for this issuealthough it was noted that this is currently being challenged by a number of providers.

Standardised Pre Qualification Questionnaire (sPQQ)

-Action Point - SPD will ensure that the ongoing work to develop the sPQQ recognises the issue raised in the guidance and update the Development Group on progress

Standard Terms and Conditions

-Scotland Excel owns work on this issue and has appointed a lawyer (Evelyn Pinkerton) to assist.

-Annie Gunner Logan offered to assist with this work and suggested that engagement at the early developmental stages would be beneficial

-Action Point - Development Group members were invited to comment on Paper 3.1 – Social Care contract clauses

-See related discussion on “TUPE Regulations”

Procurement Capability Assessment (PCA)

-SPD and Scotland Excel have been working to ensure that the PCA takes account of social care procurement issues from the perspective of the local authorities and also the key issues raised in the guidance

Collaborative Procurement

-Scotland Excel continue to lead on collaborative procurement issues for local government

-Important to recognise that collaborative procurement may not address the ideals of SDS, it is however important to link the two issues.

-Agenda Item – it was agreed that there would be benefits in discussing the tensions in linking SDS and collaborative procurementmore fully at the next meeting. Alex Davidson, Bette Francis (SG/SDS team and who could attend), Sandy Cruickshank could consider the issue using Nick Kemps paper on SDS and procurement as a basis for discussion. It was also suggested that Alex could contact Malcolm Mathieson who may have a view.

TUPE Regulations

-The standard Terms and Conditions group which Scotland Excel are involved with are considering this issue

-Important that TUPE issues not only address clauses but also the process and the role local authorities take in facilitating the process

Section 52 guidance

-Action Point - SPD have re-published this guidance but SPD will clarify whether the guidance applies where a service has already been contracted to a provider and the service is now transferring to a new provider

Contract monitoring and review / Scrutiny of procurement activity

-This is an issue which can be addressed through developing good practice examples

-There is a link with work on reducing duplication which is already inhand with CoSLA

-There is also a link with children and families issues

-This is an issue which is under pressure and is not always prioritised, so it would be valuable to develop good practice which recognised the pressures on resources.

Model standard templates

-Other available material should be useful in care and support services context

-Action Point – SPD will determine the extent to which templates are being updated in support of the work on refreshing the Procurement Journey.

5Learning and Development

This issue was discussed under the training work stream in the draft work programme

6Cycle of meetings

Next meeting proposed to take place in early December
After December meeting the Development Group would be in a better position to know timescales for work streams, therefore it is proposed that a reference group meeting would be arranged for early 2011

7AOB – Pensions

Pensions issues will be addressed through consideration of TUPE and section 52 issues

October 2010