Cabinet approves award of home care service contracts
Published 16 February 2011
Last night, Southwark Council's cabinet approved the award of Home Care Service contracts for a period of three years, from 6 April 2011.
The bringing together of smaller contracts into larger ones will help meet the demands on the public purse by offering good contract value, and develop stronger working relations with the chosen service providers.
Where the council has to put in place services on people's behalf, this will help to better meet the needs of service users by creating an easier to monitor and manage contract performance, a closer relationship with fewer providers (which will mean a more responsive and immediate service), and greater opportunity to develop the service further with innovative solutions.
Where people want their own choice of service, not provided by these council contracts, the council will support them to do so with other local providers as part of its personalisation agenda.
Councillor Dora Dixon-Fyle, cabinet member for health and adult social care, said: "Despite the current economic climate and unprecedented cuts to funding, Southwark Council will not compromise on the quality of care it provides to some of the most vulnerable people in the borough - it is recognised that the business decisions which must be made by the council in order to provide a high quality service and meet the demand on the public purse, affect people personally.
"This is an important, and highly emotive, matter and the council acknowledges the hard work of providers such as Age Concern Southwark and Southwark Home Care. The council has put the quality of care first in this contracting process. All organisations considered for the tender have to have at least a 2* standard from the Care Quality Commission which independently inspects these organisations.
"There will been no compromise on the quality of care in people's homes, whatever the decision. The council is carried out a very fair and open tender for the contracts, inviting all current providers, and ensuring that this balance between good value and excellent quality of care is reached with the chosen providers.
"It is this very rigorous process and attention to both value and quality which will mean that we will only award contracts to providers we feel can fulfill what is required. The contracts will be closely monitored to ensure that standards remain high, should standards begin to show any signs of falling beneath the two star standard, the council will be imposing sanctions to the contractor and remedying the issue immediately. The authority will also be providing clarity on anything we have been asked about this issue."
The decision was made on 15 February 2011.
