INTRODUCTION
CSED is working with a lead buying agency, Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO), acting on behalf of a number of Local Government Professional Buying Organisations (PBO's), to create a collaborative Framework Agreement which will offer a simple and effective route to purchasing and implementing electronic monitoring solutions. The Framework will be available to support implementations from the start of CSR07 and the procurement exercise is now at an advanced stage within the OJEU process.
SPONSORSHIP & SUPPORT
Sponsored by the Department of Health's CSED Programme, the work is also strongly supported by both the Regional Centre of Excellence (RCE) Procurement Programme and the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Collaborative Procurement Directorate. The work brings together the considerable knowledge built up over 2 years of CSED's work with Local Authorities that have implemented, or are planning to implement, electronic monitoring of homecare services. This has been further supplemented by considerable external expertise to develop this procurement project. As a result there should be little reason for any individual Authority to embark upon its own OJEU procurement process (on a non collaborative basis) to acquire this type of system in the foreseeable future.
A stakeholder group consisting of 6 councils planning to implement electronic monitoring systems in the near term has informed the procurement process from the prequalification stage. It is envisaged that this group will be the first to deploy the framework to meet their own specific
requirements in 2008, with others already expressing strong interest.
ELECTRONIC MONITORING OVERVIEW
The monitoring of homecare services commissioned by Authorities with social care responsibilities has traditionally been by means of handwritten timesheets completed by care workers as they proceed through their daily work schedule. A number of potential benefits have been identified from the introduction of electronic methods of recording, monitoring and managing the delivery of homecare to service users. Although different monitoring systems are reliant on different technologies, they share the essential features of providing to commissioners accurate data on actual care hours delivered to each service user.
An electronic monitoring system can streamline processing where administration involved in managing this sector of care provision is generally manual, therefore time and resource intensive. It also enables CSSRs to pay on the basis of service delivered rather than service ordered, eliminating error and fraud, supporting fair charging, reducing waste and service queries, and demonstrating value for money. Other benefits include improved cash flow and reduced provider costs, improved reliability and quality of service.
Whilst the general characteristics of commissioning bodies' requirements are likely to share much in common, it is recognised that a number of different models exist for the delivery of homecare services. It is therefore not the intention of the Framework Agreement to focus upon one preferred solution, but rather will include a number of different suppliers and technologies that will offer solutions for meeting most requirements.
This Framework will help councils to deliver the first step toward managing service delivery in a more objective way, ultimately to deliver better outcomes for service recipients.
BENEFITS OF THE FRAMEWORK
It is envisaged that the final framework will host a range of solutions from the most leading edge and competitive system providers in the marketplace.
The Framework is likely to deliver a range of benefits to users, and will assure compliance to UK and European procurement law. Bids will be evaluated by the ESPO led team, using a balanced scorecard approach to generate a price performance ratio against a range of scenarios and evaluation criteria.
By the effective use of secondary competitions, the Framework will greatly reduce procurement and implementation lead times, whilst enabling Councils to select a system and provider that meets the local requirements.
Once in place, the Framework will establish a collaboration platform to potentially support a wider base of care management applications as technology and business processes evolve.
The intention is to make the new Framework Agreement available for use by all bodies responsible for the provision of homecare services on behalf of the public sector.
TIMELINE
Following completion of the first stage of the tendering process in October, tenders are due to be returned to ESPO before Christmas. Supplier presentations and reference visits are scheduled for January, in parallel with the detailed evaluation and clarification processes. If all goes to plan the framework award decision will be made by the end of February 2008, leaving a month to mobilise before launch on 1st April 2008.
FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS
As the Framework moves toward completion we will be undertaking further targeted communications at national, regional and local level. However, in the meantime we would encourage any council planning to implement electronic monitoring in CSR07 to register their specific interest by contacting ESPO directly.
For direct contact with ESPO please contact
Trevor Laxton, Senior Buyer (Competition and Services)
ESPO, tel: 0116 294 4011
email: t.laxton@espo.org
For direct contact with CSED please contact
Brian Conway, Director of Communications,
Tel: 0207972 4641
email: brian.conway@dh.gsi.gov.uk
