Care and support tender abandoned in Edinburgh
Posted on Monday 15 February 2010
The City of Edinburgh's controversial care and support tender was finally abandoned on 11 March, as the council formally agreed a motion not to award any contracts. The Chief Executive had recommended this on two counts: first, the way in which the tender process was conducted had exposed the council to the risk of legal challenge, and second, the number of people opting for a Direct Payment instead of transfer to a new provider meant that the contracts themselves would not have been viable.
Until the administration put forward a new motion on the morning of the council meeting, officers had still wanted to link the rate for Direct Payments to the outcome of the tender. CCPS, among other stakeholder interest groups, issued urgent briefings to councillors recommending that the two processes be separated out: CCPS received a phone call from the council leader's office that morning advising that a motion to this effect would be put to the meeting.
As well as agreeing not to award contracts, council also agreed to conduct a "lessons learned" review, set up a working group to examine the Direct Payment rate, and to develop a commissioning strategy both to guide future purchasing activity and to address the whole area of Direct Payments, self-directed support and personalisation. The council has assured CCPS that its members in Edinburgh will be fully involved in these initiatives.