Issue - meetings

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to: -

1.     Receive the update on the Children's Centre Contract award for North and Central, and the insourcing of the South Locality Children’s Centre Delivery 

2.     Consider whether there is assurance that there is sufficiency of children’s centre provision to meet local need.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 41 to 52 of the

agenda, which provided an update on the Children's Centre Contract award for North and Central, and the insourcing of the South Locality Children’s Centre Delivery. The Director of Education introduced and summarised the report.

The Sub-Committee asked why the Council was not able to find a provider for the South Locality but were able to for the North and Central Localities. The Director of Education explained that this was largely due to the funding envelope available, concern around Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE), a lack of clarity around building costs and issues with the internal capacity of the bidders. After the first round of commissioning, bidders had been asked to provide the reasons for not bidding and a warming exercise has been conducted.  The provider for the North and Central Localities had not been able to take on the South Locality due to a lack of capacity.

Members asked if there were any lessons that could be learnt as a result of the failure to commission for the South Locality. The Director for Education explained that learning had been taken into account after the first round and had led to conducting a warming exercise, but this had not been enough to result in a successful bid. Members heard that unfortunately some things could not be changed, such as the funding envelope and the services the Council needed to be provided, TUPE and lack of clarity around the maintenance costs of buildings. Members heard that there was always an attempt to develop learning after any commissioning exercise. The Director Quality, Commissioning & Performance added that these were small providers, and the unknown costs were bigger risks for them than a larger business.

The Sub-Committee queried the £97k budget pressure due to redundancies and asked why only families in the South Locality would experience reduced services as a result. The Director of Education responded that the risks to service delivery in the South were low, and that ways to mitigate removing this amount from the budget would be looked at to ensure that impacts would be minimal; an example of this was encouraging staff at risk of redundancy to apply for vacant posts within the Parenting Team.

Members asked about the Purley Oaks Centre and the importance for parents in building relationships with staff before they were likely to ask for help; currently the Centre was only open for two and a half hours a week and it was asked why this was so limited. The Director of Education explained that, as part of the Hub and Spoke Model, most activity would be carried out in the Hubs with reduced activities in the Spokes; because staff had just transferred in on current terms and conditions, the model was still being developed and this had been more complicated at Purley Oaks due to staffing issues. Staff at the Purley Oaks Centre were available one day a week and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to: -

1.     Receive the update on the Children's Centre Contract award for North and Central, and the insourcing of the South Locality Children’s Centre Delivery 

2.     Consider whether there is assurance that there is sufficiency of children’s centre provision to meet local need.