Purpose

Proposed decision
 
That the Cabinet Member for
Integrated Children’s Services 
approve the commencement of a formal procurement for a new Direct
Payment Support Service commencing 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2028,
with the option to extend up to a further 24-months.
 
Reason for the decision
 
To commit the budget
for a commissioned Direct Payment Support Service in place of the
current service that is due to end on 31 March 2025 and to formally
authorise the commencement of a procurement.
 
Background
 
As part of the support planning
process, Direct Payments (DPs) are offered to individuals to
provide a greater choice and control over their care and support
arrangements. They are monetary payments that can be made to
individuals to meet some or all of their eligible support
needs. Direct Payments for parents or carers
of disabled children are a statutory duty under the Children Act
1989 as amended by Sections 17A (inserted by the Health and Social
Care Act 2001) and 17B (inserted by the Carers and Disabled
Children Act 2000).
 
Currently, the Direct
Payment Support Service is delivered by a not-for-profit provider
of Children’s and Young People Services. The service is open
to:
• Parents and
carers of disabled children
• Parents and
carers of children with special educational needs
• Young people
aged 16-25 with special educational needs
• Young disabled
people aged 16-25
 
The current Direct
Payment Support Service ends on 31 March 2025 with all available
extensions enacted. The current provider has performed well against
Key Performance Indicators and there is a need to procure this
service from 1 April 2025.
 
Options (other options considered but discarded)
 

1)        
Do nothing. The Direct Payment Support Service will
cease on 31 March 2025. Therefore, CYPE will have to make
alternative plans to administer and support CYPE Direct Payments as
part of KCC’s statutory duty. This option is
discounted
 

2)        
Commission an enhanced service which includes the
recruitment and retention of Personal Assistants in addition to the
set up and monitoring of Direct Payments. Engagement with DP
recipients and users of the service identified a key reason for
poor recruitment and retention of PAs is the low wage rate. The
contract is not able to review wage rates for PA’s as wage
rates are set by the DP recipient within the available budget, set
by the Local Authority. The appetite for additional spend with no
guarantee of a clear cost benefit is low given the councils current
financial situation. This option is discounted.
 
The proposed Decision
is in line with Kent’s Strategy for Children and Young People
with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
2021-2024
 
Priority One: Improve
the way we work with children and young people, parents and carers.
Qualitative feedback from parents, carers and young people using
the service remains extremely high. The
survey indicates that as of March 2022 100% of service users rate
the support they receive as ‘good’ or
‘excellent’, and a similar number stated that the
knowledge of the worker provided tosupport them was
‘good’ or ‘excellent’
 
Framing Kent’s
Future Council Strategy 2022-2026:
 
Priority 4: New models
of care and support: Our commitment is to reshape our commissioning
practice to ensure we build strategic partnerships with our
providers, through earlier engagement, more consistent and
proactive commissioning practice, and a stronger focus on
co-designing services.
 
Our commitment is to
support the most vulnerable children and families in our county,
ensuring our social work practice supports manageable caseloads,
reflective learning, joined up safeguarding and effective corporate
parenting arrangements.
 
In addition to Framing
Kent’s Future, the Council has recently published
‘Securing Kent’s Future – The Budget Recovery
Strategy’ which underpins any spending decisions and makes
clear that the Council must adhere to its ‘Best Value’
statutory responsibility.  The proposal
for this service adheres to the principles of the
strategy
 
The statutory Best
Value duty must frame all financial, service and policy decisions
from this point forward, and services must pro-actively evidence
the best value considerations in all decisions. Without ensuring
best value, we will not be capable of meeting our wider statutory
duties, and the services which flow from them, upon which our
residents rely.
 
As outlined in
Objective 2 of the strategy, Commissioners are ensuring any future
opportunity for Adult Social Care to jointly commission a Direct
Payment Support Service in the near future by ensuring a break
clause is written into the contract and the initial term comes to
an end after three years.
 
The Direct Payment
Support Service seeks to maximise the number of Direct Payments in
the county in line with; Securing Kent’s Future’ by
optimising support for people between the ages of 14-25 as they
transition from children to adult services, promoting independence
in adult life.
 
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s
Services in consultation with Cabinet Member for Education and
Skills, I agree to:

 

A) Approve the commencement of a procurement to
commission the Direct Payment Support Service for a period of 1
April 2025 to 31 March 2028, with an optional up to 24-month
extension.

 

B) Delegate authority to award the contract to the
successful provider to the Corporate Director for Children, Young
People and Education in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Integrated Children’s Services.

 

C) Delegate authority to the Corporate Director for
Children, Young People and Education to take other relevant
actions, including but not limited to finalising the terms of and
entering into required legal agreements, as necessary to implement
the decision.