COMMUNITY CARE PROVIDERS SCOTLAND
SOCIAL CARE PROCUREMENT
CCPS Members Update, October 2009
Scottish Parliament Local Government Committee Inquiry
Members may be aware that the Local Government Committee held an inquiry into care service standards following the Panorama broadcast earlier this year, which exposed the poor quality care provided to individuals in South Lanarkshire by a company awarded a contract following an electronic auction. The inquiry focused very clearly on procurement issues in care.
CCPS gave evidence to the inquiry on 3 June 2009, followed by representatives from three local authorities. Scottish Care At Home, the Care Commission and SWIA gave evidence on 10 June 2009.
Following the evidence sessions, the Committee Convener wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney MSP, seeking answers and reassurances on a number of key issues relating to social care procurement. A reply has now been received.
The evidence transcripts and both letters, along with several written submissions to the inquiry, can be found at this link:
The committee has considered Mr Swinney’s response, and has resolved to write to him further to ask in particular whether the Public Services Reform Bill currently going through Parliament should be amended to ensure that the new scrutiny body for care will be able to take enforcement action against poor commissioning, and not just against poor service provision. The committee will also ask Mr Swinney to make an early statement to local authorities about the use of electronic auctions for care services, rather than leaving it until broader guidance on social care procurement is produced (see below). The committee intends to monitor the situation and CCPS will ensure that any further information or relevant research findings will be brought to its attention.
Meanwhile members may be interested to note that this issue arose again in the context of a separate inquiry being held by the committee into local government finance. In early September the committee heard evidence from Professor Richard Kerley of QueenMargaretUniversity, the transcript of which included the following extract:
“The very interesting though slightly axe-grinding evidence that the committee has had from Community Care Providers Scotland illustrates how, where local authorities have contracted out, they have often pressed the burden of cost reduction on to the contractor, whether it be a religious, voluntary or private body. Community Care Providers Scotland is not the only organisation in that situation, but it is the only one to have the courage to tell the committee about it. Across Scotland, the burden of cost reduction is being shovelled out the door of local authorities, and charitable and voluntary bodies are being told to bear that burden.”
CCPS would like to take this opportunity to assure members that we will continue to grind this particular axe on their behalf!
Social Care Procurement Guidance
Several CCPS members will have participated in the series of meetings held over the summer by the Joint Improvement Team and the Scottish Procurement Directorate, who are jointly leading a process to produce guidance for local authorities on social care procurement.
A report of the issues raised at these meetings is available on the JIT website at the following link: reports of similar meetings held with local authorities and service users are also available to view, as well as the findings of the provider and LA surveys conducted to gather information for the project:
A very well-attended meeting of the project Reference Group took place on 16th September, where the information gathered from the meetings and surveys was reviewed, and proposals considered for the format and content of the guidance. The project team will now begin to draft the guidance package. The formation of a smaller editorial group of stakeholders is being considered, to assist the team in taking this forward: CCPS intends to put itself forward for this in order to monitor progress closely.
Originally the timetable was for the guidance to be produced in “early autumn”: this has now clearly slipped considerably. CCPS expressed concern that authorities may not wait for the guidance before proceeding with further re-tendering: in response, the JIT has undertaken to write to all local authorities, reminding them that the guidance is in production and will be forthcoming.
“Tender Watch”
The new CCPS website is now available to view at We will shortly be developing a new feature on the local authority pages of the site which we are tentatively calling “Tender Watch” – this will provide details of any current tenders that we are aware of, and any interventions CCPS makes in respect of these. Whilst this is being developed, members can visit the ‘commissioning’ page of the site where all information about procurement is currently displayed.
TUPE Guidance for managers
The Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce Unit has produced guidance for providers on handling and managing TUPE, which has been highlighted as one of the most problematic areas of service re-tendering. The guidance can be viewed at this link, and is downloadable:
SWIA guide to commissioning
The Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) has produced a self-evaluation guide to commissioning for local authorities. A number of CCPS members attended meetings with SWIA earlier in 2009 to discuss their views on commissioning with the SWIA team. The guidance has now been published and is available at this link:
strategic_commissioning.pdf
Providers’ perspectives of social care procurement: repeat survey
Finally, can we alert members at this early stage to our plans to repeat the survey we conducted in the summer of 2008, the findings of which were disseminated widely and which, we believe, acted as a catalyst for a lot of the parliamentary and government interest and activity in this area that is now being taken forward. We would hope to start the survey at the beginning of 2010 with a view to publishing in March/April.
For any further information or clarification of these or related matters, please contact:
0131 337 3295