Issue - meetings

A report from the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing is attached.

Councillor Andrea Simpson, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, presented the report which outlined proposals to recommission the Bury Integrated Sexual Health Service, which had been provided by Virgin Care Ltd since January 2016 as part of a cluster commissioning arrangement with Rochdale and Oldham Councils (known as ORB).

Decision:

That Cabinet:

1.   Approves to proceed to market for a full tender process commencing June 2021 for a new service to be in place by 1 April 2022.

2.   Agrees that Bury remains as part of a collaborative commissioning arrangement with Oldham and Rochdale Councils.

Reasons for the decision:

There is no provision to extend the current contract. Undertaking a full tender process, including revising the specification of the service to include additional elements (based on data and intelligence from the 2019 Sexual Health Needs Assessment) and to better align with local and regional ambitions, as well as including new required provision, will ensure that we have a high functioning and appropriate Integrated Sexual Health Service for Bury.

The cluster arrangement between Oldham, Rochdale and Bury has worked well to date and there have been significant benefits to collaboratively commissioning the service for the three boroughs. The locality footprints and demographics are such that the population health needs are similar across the cluster. The service has also benefited from reduced overheads and management costs and has been able to provide a more flexible service in response to staffing pressures or other service need.

Other options considered and rejected:

The recommendation is that Bury remains as part of a collaborative commissioning arrangement, as opposed to commissioning as a single locality- the rationale is to standardise quality of care across the localities as well as to manage costs associated with the process, reduce duplication, and avoid unnecessary expense.