Agenda item

(To receive a report from Mark Rainey, Children's Commissioning Manager, Commercial and Dave Clarke, Principal Lincolnshire Secure Unit, which invites the Committee to consider a report on the Lincolnshire Secure Unit, Ministry of Justice Contract Bid, which is due to be considered by the Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services on 18 June 2018)

Consideration was given to a report from Mark Rainey, Children's Commissioning Manager, Commercial and Dave Clarke, Principal Lincolnshire Secure Unit, which invited the Committee to consider a report on the Lincolnshire Secure Unit – Ministry of Justice contract bid, which was due to be considered by the Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services on 18 June 2018.

Shannon Gaskell, Commissioning Officer, Commercial Services introduced the report, making reference to the background behind the twelve-bedded Secure Children's Home (SCH), situated in Sleaford, which had opened in 1997.  It was reported that eleven of the beds were contracted to the Ministry of Justice for young people sentenced or remanded into custody; and that one bed was used for Local Authorities, including Lincolnshire, to spot purchase for young people requiring secure accommodation under Welfare criteria.

It was reported that maintaining the Lincolnshire Secure Unit (LSU) within Lincolnshire ensured that positive outcomes could be achieved locally by Lincolnshire young people when resident at the LSU as well as providing a valuable resource more widely.

Details of the existing contract provision was provided on page 90 of the report presented.  It was highlighted that the current contract was for eleven beds, valued at £594.49 per night per bed, which equated to £2,386,877.35 per annum.  The LSU also had one welfare bed available to both Lincolnshire young people and young people placed by other Local Authorities.  It was highlighted that the welfare bed price for 2018/19 had increased to £850.00 per night.  The income that had been received for 2017/18 for the one welfare bed had been £0.287m.

The Committee was advised that the Ministry of Justice had recently confirmed that they were re-procuring on a Direct Award Contract approach.  The direct negotiations would focus on three main areas:

·         The number of beds a SCH can offer to the Ministry of Justice;

·         The price at which those beds will be offered; and

·         The length of contract to be awarded.

The report identified that individual negotiations would be completed by 30 June 2018; with a new contract in place by 1 October 2018.

It was highlighted that failure to negotiate with the Ministry of Justice to continue provision of a Secure Children's Home from the LSU site was likely to lead to the unit ceasing to operate as there would be no guaranteed income through the Ministry of Justice contract.  The report therefore recommended that negotiations were undertaken with the Ministry of Justice to reach a successful conclusion to retain the ability to deliver the service from the LSU and safeguard the benefits accruing to the Council through securing a guaranteed income stream from the Ministry of Justice contract to ensure financial sustainability of the facility.

Appendix A to the report provided a map showing secure children's homes in England.

During discussion, the Committee raised the following comments:-

·         It was queried why there was only one welfare bed and whether this could be increased.  It was highlighted that there was no guarantee of income from welfare beds whereas for secure beds there was guaranteed income from the Ministry of Justice.  It was noted that officers were currently working with the Department for Education to look at a new location for the secure unit in order to increase the number of welfare beds to twelve.  It was reported that the current building did not allow for an increase in the number of welfare beds;

·         Cllr M A Whittington highlighted that he was a member of the Commissioning and Commercial Board which had considered this proposal.  He highlighted that there was no financial risk to Lincolnshire County Council with the current model for eleven secure beds and one welfare bed.  However, if the number of secure beds dropped to ten and there were two welfare beds instead, this would increase the financial risk to the Council as there would be less guaranteed income from the Ministry of Justice; and

·         It was suggested that the Secure Unit should be renamed to something more in line with other secure units nationally.  It was noted that moving to a new building would provide an ideal opportunity to rename the facility.

RESOLVED

That the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee unanimously supported the recommendations contained in the Executive Councillor report; and requested that the Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services take into account the comments raised above before making a decision on 18 June 2018.