Purpose

Proposed
Decision:
 
Cabinet Member for Integrated
Children’s Services to:
 
APPROVE the proposal to not
re-commission the Family Hub services that are currently provided
at Seashells and Millmead Family Hubs when the current contracts
reach the end of their term on 31 March 2025. 
 
DELEGATE any activity requiring
capital spend as set out in the report to the Director of
Infrastructure, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet
Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, and Director of
Operational Integrated Children’s Services
 
DELEGATE authority to the
Director for Operational Integrated Children’s Services to
explore the option for Kent County Council to deliver outreach
Family Hub services from Seashells and Millmead centres when the
current contracts reach the end of their term on 31 March
2025.
 
DELEGATE authority to the
Director for Operational Integrated Children’s Services, to
take necessary actions, including but not limited to finalising,
entering into, concluding or managing any relevant contracts and
other legal agreements, as required to implement this
decision.
 
Reason for the Decision:
 
The
financial challenges facing all local authorities is critical. KCC
needs to deliver £108.8m (2024-25 published Medium Term
Financial Plan) of transformation and efficiency savings over the
next two years. Our work to meet these challenges has already meant
changes to services across the county.
 
In
October 2023 the KCC Cabinet adopted ‘Securing
Kent’s Future’
which set out the scale of the financial challenge and the approach
to tackling it. The financial situation means that we have needed
to adopt a Recovery Plan which sets out how we plan to meet the
challenge. A key part of the Recovery Plan is to make
‘further savings and generate income through the
Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP)’.The MTFP sets out
precisely what savings are needed to balance the budget and where
those savings could be made. 
  
 

Background
In November 2023 KCC Cabinet
took a
decision to implement the
Family Hub model across the County. At the time, that
included transformation and efficiency
plans for 56 Family Hub locations across Kent not
including the two Independently managed centres, Millmead and
Seashells (in line with the Kent Communities
Programme
decision, also from November
2023).
 
The service contracts
for the two Centres were tendered and awarded in 2020 for a period
of 12 months. The services were subject to Directly Awarded
contracts from April 2021 to March 2022 under Covid-19 guidance. A
Key Decision (21/00086) was taken on 10 November 2021 to directly
award contracts to the existing providers for a further year until
31 March 2023. A further Key Decision (22/00108) facilitated an
additional 12 month extension, meaning the contracts ended on 31
March 2023.   
 
To minimise
duplication of provision and to ensure that future specifications
complimented the Kent Family Hub model being developed, the
procurement of new commissioned services was delayed. In 2024, a
further Direct Award was made to the two centres as Family Hubs.
The terms and conditions of this contract were continued from the
previous contract and require a six month notice period. 
Therefore the current contracts end 31 March 2025. Indicative
notice of the end of the contracts was given to each provider,
subject to the outcome of the consultation and any resultant Key
Decision in July 2024.
 
Further extension of
these contracts is not possible, other than to cover any period of
procurement for new contracts, subject to the decision.
 
It is therefore proposed that
KCC will not re-procure these two contracts when they come to their
end on 31 March 2025.  The Family Hub
service will be delivered from within existing Family Hubs in
Margate as an alternative to the Millmead Centre. In relation to
the Seashells Centre a Family Hub service will be offered from the
Sheerness Gateway. Some minor investment may be required at the
Gateway to enhance safeguarding provisions given the increased
number of children and babies that may be in attendance.
 

Options (other options considered by
discarded)

 
These are the options
explored by the service for alternatives:

 

Reprocure the contracts, be that from these or other providers,
therefore not achieving the saving set out in the MTFP – this
would require a short-term extension of the existing contracts to
run the procurement for the new contracts. This means that the
saving identified within the MTFP would then not be
made.

 

Do not
reprocure the contracts, instead rent space in the centres to
deliver a KCC Family Hub service – this would mean the
continued use of the Millmead and Seashells centre by the local
authority but with a reduced cost to KCC covering the rent for the
building, rather than the cost of commissioning the full-service
delivery. Further it would impact on the savings requirement in the
MTFP

 

Financial Implications:
In accordance with the Cabinet
decision to support the recommendations in the paper

Securing
Kent’s Future on 5
October 2023, the approach set out makes sure that, in line with
the Recovery ‘further savings and income for the
Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP)’ are realised.
 
The decision to not reprocure
the two contracts will save £426k annually.
 
Minor capital investment will
be required at the Gateway site to facilitate safeguarding and the
appropriate use of the space for the Family Hub activities. It is
planned that this is funded from the Capital grant award from the
DfE to facilitate the Family Hub transformation.
 

Provider

Area

Contract End Date

Contract value per Annum

Millmead

Margate

31/03/2025

£222,127.44

Seashells

Sheerness

31/03/2025

£204,302.16

Totals

£426,429.60

 
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member
for Integrated Children’s Services  I agree to:
 
APPROVE the proposal to not
re-commission the Family Hub services that are currently provided
at Seashells and Millmead Family Hubs when the current contracts
reach the end of their term on 31 March
2025.  
 
DELEGATE any activity requiring
capital spend as set out in the report to the Director of
Infrastructure, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet
Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, and Director of
Operational Integrated Children’s
Services
 
DELEGATE authority to the Director
for Operational Integrated Children’s Services to explore the
option for Kent County Council to deliver outreach Family Hub
services from Seashells and Millmead centres when the current
contracts reach the end of their term on 31 March
2025. 
 
DELEGATE authority to the Director
for Operational Integrated Children’s Services, to take
necessary actions, including but not limited to finalising,
entering into, concluding or managing any relevant contracts and
other legal agreements, as required to implement this
decision.