Purpose

The current Reception Aged Vision Service provision expires on 31 March 2024. The Public Health Improvement Team is seeking to extend the contract by 4 months until 31 July 2024 to align the contract end date with the academic school year.

At the beginning of the school year (September), each school will be assigned a date for their vision screening service from September to July.  Undertaking a tender exercise mid-school year risk disrupting the service delivery and could lead to some reception-aged children not receiving a vision screen. Extending the contract to July 2024 will therefore ensure that the screening programme delivered over the school academic year will be completed smoothly and transitioned to the new contract from the next school year onwards.

Decision

The Cabinet approved the recommendation(s) as set out in the report.