Purpose

Croydon Council was successful
with its funding bid to the Department for Education (DfE) under
the Complex Needs Open Children’s Homes Capital Investment
programme for capital match funding to deliver additional provision
for children with complex needs and challenging behaviour,
recognised to be a response to complex and ongoing
trauma.
 
Croydon has secured
£0.78m to develop a children’s home at a Council owned
property in South Norwood. The DfE grant funding is capital funding
to refurbish the building and convert it into a home for up to
three children, including rooms for care and support staff (key
decision number: 0725EM).
 
The capital works element is
Phase 1 of the project and is in design stage.
 
This report relates to the next
phase of the project (Phase 2), which is to commission an
experienced Service Provider to run the home and deliver registered
services to ensure that Croydon children with complex needs can
continue to live within the borough.
 
The decision required will be
to approve the commissioning intentions and procurement strategy
detailed in this report, which will lead to the award of a contract
to a Service Provider to run the Children’s Home and deliver
registered services, for a duration of 7 years with a total
contract value of £7,000,000.
 

Content

Approve the commissioning
intentions and procurement strategy (Route to Market Section 4.7 of
this report) for the commissioning of the development of a new
Children’s Home in the borough. This contract will be
procured under the Light Touch Regime in line with Procurement Act
2023, which will lead to the award of a contract to a Service
Provider to run the children’s home and deliver registered
services, for a duration of a maximum of 7 years with an aggregate
total estimated contract value of £9,009,000.
 

Reasons for the decision

This option is recommended on
the basis that it is the only one that delivers an expertly run
home which can deliver effective care and provide value for money
to the Council.
 
The option to deliver the
service directly is considered by officers to present operational
and financial risks to the Council. Recruiting and managing
residential staff, gaining Ofsted registration and managing the
service are specialist activities that the Council would need to
recruit to deliver. Additional management posts would be required
within the council, which will add to overall costs and reduce the
savings impact.
 
Improved outcomes for some of
our most vulnerable children - avoid the need to apply for
DoLS orders, reduce isolation and
institutionalisation and quickly start to work with children and
their families on targeted, evidence-based therapeutic
interventions that enable safe step-down from residential care to
less costly provision with better outcomes for families and
individuals. 
 
Establishing a new
children’s home in the borough will reduce pressure on
budgets and contribute to the savings plan already outlined in the
Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). Developing internal
provision is part of our overall sufficiency pathway and will
contribute to meeting savings requirements as part of the
Stabilisation Plan.
 
Increased proportion of
children with complex needs placed locally, thereby maintaining
local connections, access to local partner services, family
relationships and lower cost provision of council services to
them.
 

Alternative options considered

Do nothing. Continue to
purchase Children’s Home care from the open market at market
rates, accepting that children will continue to need to live away
from their homes. Recent DfE reporting states that the cost of
Children’s Residential Care has risen on average 50% in the
last 2 years This option will not contribute to making savings and
would require the return of the £780,000 capital grant
funding to the DfE.
 
To deliver the operational
service directly, recruiting specialist staff, gaining Ofsted
registration and managing the service. It is recognised that
operating children’s homes is a specialist activity and that
many Local Authorities closed previous children’s homes
because of operational concerns and complications. This is
reflected in section 3.2 of this report.