DN645281 SENDIASS Service

Tender description

The ER request is due to lead officer leaving the local authority, leading to delays in request to go out to tender, along with contract manager having a long-term absence due to sickness again leading to delays in the presentation of documents to cabinet. This is a statutory Information and Advice Service for families and children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities). The contract has had both an extension and previous exemption, all extensions have been exhausted. Work was underway during 2020 to carry out a tender exercise but this was halted due to the recommendations of the internal review as part of the SEND Joint Commissioning Board contract management which concluded that the service failed to meet the minimum standards under the statutory Code of Practice as it was not jointly commissioned. Work was then undertaken with the Department of Education to scope out what was required to make the service compliant. As a result of this work a funding request was submitted to the CCG for an additional contribution of £35,000 per year recurring. This was predicated on an additional casework post of £30,000 plus £5,000 towards the management costs over a contracting period of 3 years plus the option to extend for a further 2 years (at yearly intervals). The request was approved by the Joint Commissioning Working Group on 15th June 2021 and was progressed as a priority through the CCG internal business case process in light of the urgent nature. It goes went to their planning group on 27th August and was subsequently approved. This service is jointly commissioned by both Liverpool and Knowsley, previously Liverpool has been invoiced and recharged Knowsley, during late discussion with Knowsley concerning the new specification and contract they requested that invoicing was kept separate. A consequence of this has been delaying the cabinet report requesting to go out to tender and a redraft of the potential contract. Due to these unfortunate delays we are yet to conclude the full tender exercise, this exemption request is for 4 months to enable this process to conclude. A new timeframe has been identified which needs to include time for Tupe and we believe the exercise can be concluded for a contract start date of 1stFebruary 2023 , if contract awarded earlier than exemption end date, it will take precedence. The financial obligation for this 4 month extension with be split 51% Liverpool, 49% Knowsley