Decision details

Re-Procurement of the Council's Occupational Health Provision

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Purpose:

To explore the options and give recommendation for the provision of Occupational Health services to SCC beyond the current Health Management Limited contract. The expiry of the current contract is December 2018.

 

Decision:

That the Individual Cabinet Member for Finance:-

 

(i) approves the re procurement of a provider to deliver a comprehensive Occupational Health Service and Employee Assistance programme for up to 4 years, through a compliant  mini competition process under the CCS Framework, as set out in the report; and

 

(ii) delegates authority to  award the contract for the provision of Occupational Health Services and Employee Assistance Programme to the Director of Finance and Commercial Services, in consultation with the Director of Human Resources and Customer Services and the Director of Legal and Governance.

Reasons for the decision:

Overall the option to access and existing framework was considered to represent the best option for the Council with the least risk attached, ensuring value for money and the ability to access a wide range of medical specialism’s ensuring a high level of clinical governance.

           

A Framework approach is a straight forward process resulting in a mini competition between providers already meeting a good standard benchmark.

Alternative options considered:

A number of delivery models have been considered as part of this exercise and include;

  1. Set up an in-house Occupational Health Service

Benefits

Challenges

Control over the service being delivered

Recruitment of medical professionals (including accommodation, equipment and IT systems to run the service)

Embedded team is more able to make better clinical decisions based on SCC organisational requirements

Independent clinical governance required

Higher level of occupational health input into the Health and Wellbeing strategy

Highly competitive market for qualified occupational health professionals

 

Additional cost of £150,000 staffing costs

 

Limited opportunity to flex resource or be resilient in times of peak demand

 

Breadth of types of employees means we need access to different occupational health specialists which could result in additional resource needed

 

Requirement to purchase an EAP service

 

Continuous professional development to ensure compliance with clinical governance

 

 

  1. Go out to tender independently for Occupational Health services.

Benefits

Challenges

Mature competitive market could result in a high standard of provision of these services

Length of procurement process has a major impact on resources in Procurement and Supply Chain and HR at a time of significant challenges.

Direct management control of the subsequent contract

Size of SCC contract may not attract the most economically advantageous offer from the market

Ability to influence continuous improvement and development of the service delivered throughout the contract

 

Access to a wider medical specialism ensuring flexibility based on demand and resilience at periods of peak demand

 

Clinical governance is covered by the service provider

 

 

 

  1. Go out to joint procurement with other public sector bodies

Benefits

Challenges

Aggregated spend is likely to be attractive to the market to realise competitive proposals

Obtaining consensus on the requirements in the timescales available

Provides an opportunity to share best practice amongst the collaborating organisations

Ability to ensure SCC’s requirements are not diluted as a result of the collaboration

Opportunity to charge a contract management fee for running the process

Decision making could be delayed as a consensus would be needed

 

Publication date: 25/07/2018

Date of decision: 24/07/2018

Effective from: 01/08/2018

Accompanying Documents: