The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to request Cabinet approval to implement the proposed recommissioning plan for the Supported Living services across the Bridgend County Borough and request Cabinet approval for Bridgend County Borough Council (the Council), to undertake a procurement exercise to invite tenders to establish a Framework Agreement of commissioned service providers.

She explained that the Council had carried out a procurement exercise in 2016, which had resulted in the appointment of three independent services providers to deliver Supported Living services to eligible individuals with a learning disability.

During 2018-19, an in-depth review led by the Adult Social Care’s Transformation and Review team was undertaken, which focused on the effectiveness of service delivery and outcomes for individuals across the three independent service providers.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing, proceeded by confirming that the current contracts in respect of Supported Living Services were ‘County-Wide, meaning that each of the three incumbent service providers must manage a number of Supported Living schemes dispersed across the entire County Borough, which did have some challenges for service providers.

The next section of the report, advised that the location of current schemes falls into naturally localised areas, which supports a move towards community-based contracts within the geographical areas shown in paragraph 4.2 of the report. This was more flexible and based upon what service users both needed, wanted and required.

Paragraph 4.6 of the report, explained that the above would be undertaken on a phased based approach for a number of reasons, including to ensure that there was minimal disruption for those affected by the change.

She went on to explain, that service providers on the Framework Agreement would not be guaranteed an award of a Local Area Service, each of which will be subject to its own tender process and evaluation. In order to mitigate risk of the impact of future business failure, no single provider will be awarded a Local Area Service(s) contract, whereby they will have a market share in excess of 50%.

Paragraph 4.11 of the report, included a table that set out the planned Stage 1 procurement timescales should approval be given to implement the Recommissioning Plan.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added, that as part of Stage 2 of the procurement process, it was planned that everyone who lives in a Supported Living scheme will also be able to say what is important within the service and ‘what matters’ to them.

She proceeded further by confirming that certain engagement events had been held and the main findings from these were shown in paragraph 4.14 of the report.

Paragraph 4.18 of the report (as was highlighted in paragraph 3.3) confirmed, that the Learning Disability Supported Living service is a jointly-funded service, with around 75% of costs funded via Adult Social Care core budgets for the care elements of the service, and circa 25% funded via the Welsh Government Housing Support Grant (HSG) for the housing related support elements of the service.

Currently, these funding streams are separated which causes confusion for service providers and is also a complicated process for commissioners and support teams. Moving forward, it was proposed to combine these funding streams, which will then allow for a more person-centred and outcome-focused method for delivering services, in place of the current method of capping and fixing housing related support hours.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing then concluded the report, by advising of its financial implications.

The Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help commended the report, adding that the proposals contained therein, reflected that the service was listening to what users want going forward. The reports aims and objectives when realised, would also allow for more innovative and flexible approaches by which to support service users in the future.

The Leader asked if the Bridgend Parents Forum group had been involved in the re-commissioning proposals, to which the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing replied that they had.

The Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help added also, that the proposals had received support from Independent Advocacy groups (who were independent of the local authority)

RESOLVED:                   That Cabinet:

• Approved the recommissioning plan proposed for Supported Living services in Bridgend;
• Approved the invitation of tenders to establish a Framework Agreement;

Noted that once bids to enter into the Framework Agreement are received from service providers a further report will be presented to Cabinet requesting approval to enter into the Framework Agreement and to implement the Stage 2 procurement of Local Area Service tenders.