Archived decisions

REPORT OF THE

EXECUTIVE MEMBER SOCIAL CARE

PART II

FIXED CAPACITY CONTRACTS FOR SUPPORTING PEOPLE

1. In order to provide stability in the Supported Housing Sector, predictable income streams for service providers and to safeguard Hampshire County Council as Administering Authority from possible financial risk, the Executive Member has agreed the introduction of Fixed Capacity Contracts.

2. Contracts are priced by agreeing unit costs and multiplying that figure by the number of eligible service users. This arrangement creates uncertainty for service providers as it is not possible to predict monthly income with certainty. There are two significant areas of risk for the County Council in these arrangements. Firstly, there are some services that have variable packages and cost for support. If, for instance, a non banded service has a vacancy, the County Council has no control over the extent, and therefore the cost, of the package provided for any new person that moves in; and secondly block subsidy contracts, which were originally agreed, define a capacity larger than that being paid for through supporting people. The potential liability is, therefore, much greater than the money that has been received to fund Supporting People Services.

3. Rather than defining service capacity in terms of units or individuals, fixed term capacity contracts define capacity in terms of the number of hours provided. Following service reviews the capacity would be agreed and if demand exceeds capacity the providers would be encouraged to bid to increase capacity through District Core Groups. Such bids can be judged alongside other bids for increasing capacity or new services. The result would be that the financial liability is planned and predictable; investment can be co-ordinated and strategic and the programme can be managed without large amounts of administrative labour.

4. Although the payments to service providers will be fixed on an annual basis the contract between the County Council and the service provider will make it clear that no service user who would have received services under the current arrangement will be refused services because of the new arrangements.

4IR580603