Agenda item

(To consider a report from Sophie Reeve, Assistant Director – Commercial, on a One Council Commissioning Framework which is being presented to the Executive on 6 July 2021. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

Consideration was given to a report from the Assistant Director – Commercial, on a One Council Commissioning Framework which was being presented to the Executive on 6 July 2021. The views of the Board would be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item.

The One Council Commissioning Framework outlined the Council's definition of  Commissioning and its vision, aim and principles. It had been presented to the Executive on 7 April 2021 when Executive Councillors had raised some points and asked for further work to be done and the report to be presented back to the new Executive for further consideration. As a result, changes had been made to the One Council Commissioning Framework which was set out in Appendix A of the report. The report recommended that the Executive approve the One Council Commissioning Framework as outlined in Appendix A of the report.

The proposed new Commissioning Framework created a vision and an ambition for Council commissioning closely aligned to the Corporate Plan which put residents at the centre. It retained the key strengths of the current approach and benefited from consideration of the approaches taken by other authorities.

Members discussed the report, and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·         All staff at the County Council would have access to a single commissioning process which would ensure a consistent One Council approach to commissioning. Staff groups were being set up to share best practice on contract management and peer support would also be available to colleagues in the Council.

·         There would be more clarity for officers across the Council on the commissioning process. Officers across the Council had been consulted on the process.

·         Innovation should only be undertaken when it was beneficial to do so and the amendment to the Commissioning Framework to reflect this was welcomed, particularly with regard to IT systems.

·         The increased emphasis on championing Lincolnshire and keeping commissioning local was welcomed. There was no target set for the number of local suppliers that would be commissioned as it would be difficult to measure due to different interpretations of what was meant by local, such as having a head office in Lincolnshire, or just employing staff in Lincolnshire. Training would be provided to local suppliers so that they could bid for contracts, and the length and complexity of the documents had been reduced which would make the process easier and more streamlined. Streamlining the process was welcomed.

·         It was recommended that there should be a promotion of future contracts to local suppliers to encourage more local bids. However, it was recognised that there was still a need to balance this with ensuring the Council was getting value for money for local residents. It was noted that contract regulations required requests for quotations to include a number of local suppliers for contracts below a value of circa £190,000. There could be further opportunities to review following changes to EU directives.

·         The reference to making the best use of the scarce public pound in Lincolnshire was to reflect the likelihood of a reduction in funding for councils and one year financial settlements going forward as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

·         The Integrated Care System (ICS) between the NHS and Adult Social Care would be implemented from next year. Work was on-going on developing an ICS Board to start in April 2022 and the statutory guidance on what this would look like had just been published. There was an opportunity to make it happen in a systemic way as the NHS, Police and Local Authority were coterminous in Lincolnshire and there was already integration into the Health and Wellbeing Board. District Councils would also have a role to play in the ICS. It was recommended that the relevant scrutiny committees should receive regular updates on the progress of the ICS.

RESOLVED:

1.      That the Board support the recommendation to the Executive to approve the One Council Commissioning Framework as outlined in Appendix A of the report;

2.      That a summary of the comments made be passed on to the Executive in relation to this item.