Health and social work services

Tender description

The City of York Council has appointed a Provider to deliver a Short Breaks Service for Adults / Young people with a Learning Disability to the Council’s customers. The service is currently provided by Lifeways Community Care Ltd and based at 77 Flaxman Avenue, Tang Hall, York, the service will continue to be provided under a revised service specification. The expiry of the current contract has provided the opportunity to consult on the current service and make amendments to the specification to bring it up to date to reflect changes in both national and local agendas, including the Council’s commitment to a robust local offer. Over the last 5 years there have been significant changes in legislation effecting the way children and adult services work. The Care Act (2014) replaced numerous previous laws for adult social care in England and set out new duties for local authorities and partners, and new rights for customers and carers. Following a comprehensive analysis of current provision and the future need for short breaks services the Council has decided to re-procure the current service based at Flaxman Avenue in York. The short break service facility is able to support the complex needs of adults who have profound and multiple learning disabilities as well as adults with autism from age 16+. Individuals who have a short break may have great difficulty in communicating or could have additional sensory and physical disabilities as well as complex health needs or behaviours which may at times challenge. The Provider will deliver a 7 days per week / 365 days per year short break service for adults (18 years old and over), and young people from age 16 years old, with a learning disability. Not all the short breaks will be planned and there may be emergency placements. The Provider will ensure there is provision at all times for emergency placements. Emergency placements are for adults with a learning disability age 18 and over only and will be included within this allocation. An emergency placement will take priority over planned short break bookings. (An emergency is: an unplanned or unforeseen event that results in the immediate and unavoidable absence of the primary carer or back up carer). Through this contract, the Provider will maintain and operate the York (Flaxman Avenue) based service providing a minimum of 1 400 guaranteed nights per annum for use by Adult Social Care. Once this allocation has been utilised short break provision will be purchased on a spot rate as identified in the tender schedule. The Council expects that some of the existing staff at the current service based at Flaxman Avenue will transfer to the new service model to also be based at Flaxman Avenue (under the TUPE Regulations). The length of the contract will be 3 years with the option to extend for a further year.