Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:

1.    Approve option 1 to implement a new technology enabled care delivery model under a collaborative approach between Rothercare and an independent sector technology partner.

2.    Approve a competitive procurement process and award of contract on the basis of a 5-year initial term. The contract will include potential extensions for up to 3 years (to be taken in any combination). The new arrangements will commence April 2025.

3.    Agree the new charging policy and rates for Rothercare from 2025/26 for existing customers and the policy of applying a new rate to new customers from 2025/26 onwards.

Consideration was given to the report which detailed the options appraisal and sought approval to implement a new Rothercare model where the assistive technology elements of the service would be undertaken by an independent sector technology partner and Rothercare would continue to deliver the core service elements, engaging with the public and service users under a realigned delivery model. The recommendations in the report followed on from Minute 121, January 2024 – Digitalisation of the Rothercare Service.

The Council’s assistive technology offer was delivered via its in-house Rothercare service. This was an ‘end to end’ service which managed referrals and triage, installation of equipment, the monitoring and responding to alerts. The service also procured all technical aspects including the hardware and software (alarm receiving centre, digital box/pendant, licences and peripheral technology).

Rothercare was a chargeable service funded through a mix of weekly charges to customers and a subsidy from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and therefore the pricing policy had been considered alongside the operating model.

The Council’s intention was to use assistive technology to enable residents of Rotherham to remain independent within their own home for as long as possible. To achieve the vision there needed to be a significant increase in the use of assistive technology.  Assistive technology could reduce dependence on formal care by helping to avoid early admission to care homes, reduce the amount of home care required and help to galvanise strength-based approaches to care. As such, this type of technology contributed to efficient use of resources across health and social care services and improved the quality of life for many users.

A number of options were set out in Section 3 of the report. Option 1, at paragraph 3.1, was the preferred option. This would allow Rothercare to continue to deliver the referral, triage, monitoring and response service whilst the assistive technology elements (identification of assistive technology solutions, installation, recycling, disposal and maintenance and procurement of assistive technology equipment) would be delivered by a technology partner from the independent sector. The following options were not recommended with the reasons detailed in the report: Rothercare continued to deliver all elements of the service in-house; an arm’s length management organisation was used; and a commissioned technology partner delivered all elements.

Subject to approval, a formal procurement process would commence in Autumn 2024. A mobilisation period would ensue following the tender award which would be aligned to the revised Rothercare operating model from April 2025.

The weekly charge for the Rothercare service (2024-25) was £3.50 per week. The service costs and associated charge to customers had not been revised for an extensive period. The weekly service charge needed to achieve full cost recovery (2025/26) had been calculated at £6.88 per week. It was proposed that the weekly charge should increase from the current £3.50 to £4.50 (2025/26) for a 12-month period. This would cover the costs associated with the fact that the UK’s telecom infrastructure analogue to digital upgrade programme was now underway on a national scale. As a result of the Analogue to Digital (A2D) programme the Council was compelled to replace the Rothercare’s analogue units with digital units. These were installed in customers’ homes and had an integrated Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) which were a component of digital boxes.

A transitional increase in the weekly charge (in addition to inflation increase) would be applied in subsequent years which would be an important step to sustain the critical service and balance income and expenditure without a need for further subsidy.

During the meeting it was reiterated that customers who were receiving a subsidised service would continue to do so until they left the service. Residents who paid the Rothercare charge as part of a tenancy agreement but did not wish to do so, would be offered an opportunity to have their needs for assistive technology identified prior to opting out of the charge.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB), who advised that the recommendations be supported. They had requested that a progress report be brought back to OSMB 12 months after the implementation of the new model (April 2026).

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Approve option 1 to implement a new technology enabled care delivery model under a collaborative approach between Rothercare and an independent sector technology partner.

2.    Approve a competitive procurement process and award of contract on the basis of a 5-year initial term. The contract will include potential extensions for up to 3 years (to be taken in any combination). The new arrangements will commence April 2025.

3.    Agree the new charging policy and rates for Rothercare from 2025/26 for existing customers and the policy of applying a new rate to new customers from 2025/26 onwards.

4.    Note the request from OSMB that a report is taken back to the Board in 12 months following the implementation of the new technology enabled care delivery model (April 2026.)