Independent Advice to the OAWY Adoption Panel

Concepts

• one adoption west yorkshire agency decision maker
• business services
• leeds
• west yorkshire agency decision makers
• independent advice
• oawy adoption panel
• legal advice and representation
• panel discussion
• professional advice
• adoption panels

Location

West Yorkshire:

Description

Provision of a quality assurance and advisory role to the 8 monthly One Adoption West Yorkshire adoption panels, ensuring that processes are compliant with Adoption Regulations and Minimum Standards. Advice will be provided to the five West Yorkshire Agency Decision Makers and the One Adoption West Yorkshire Agency Decision Maker as required.

Total Quantity or Scope

Provision of a quality assurance and advisory role to the 8 monthly One Adoption West Yorkshire adoption panels, ensuring that processes are compliant with Adoption Regulations and Minimum Standards. Advice will be provided to the five West Yorkshire Agency Decision Makers and the One Adoption West Yorkshire Agency Decision Maker as required. The following services will be delivered; Quality assurance of reports coming to the adoption panels to ensure they meet a high standard, are compliant with regulations and that information is sufficient to allow panel to make a recommendation Provide professional advice and feedback to the social workers with a view to improving the quality of information for children and families Attend adoption panels Provide advice to the Chair and the panel regarding the work of the panel and the recommendations that they can make Quality assurance of panel minutes to ensure they sufficiently capture the panel discussion, recommendations, reasons and panel advice Meet with Local Authority and One Adoption West Yorkshire Agency Decision Makers to provide advice and information relating to panel discussions Coordination of panel letters Attend meetings with OAWY and The Panel Chairs to review and develop practice in relation to Adoption Panels Support Panel Chairs with annual reviews of Panel Members

Award Detail

Renewal Options

option to extend by up to 24 months

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 79000000 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security
• 79110000 - Legal advisory and representation services
• 79400000 - Business and management consultancy and related services

Indicators

• Options are available.

Legal Justification

The council intends to directly award a contract to Highton Consultancy Ltd on the grounds set out at Regulation 32 (2) (b) (ii) - Negotiated Procedure without prior publication - of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The below sets out the technical reasons why competition is absent and the reasons why no reasonable alternative or substitute exists, as required by Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) ; Independent Advice to Adoption Panel is a regulatory requirement and from the establishment of OAWY in April 2017 was a role fulfilled by Team Managers within the Agency. In response to Covid 19, OAWY utilised monies from the Adoption Support Fund Covid 19 scheme to appoint a consultant to undertake this work from 24/07/2020. This was due to increased pressures on Team Managers as a result of increasing case numbers. There was a requirement to increase the number of Adoption Panels from seven to eight per month in response to increased work and also the need to move panels from face to face to online in response to the pandemic. A further 12 month contract was awarded in April 2021 to maintain the service due to the ongoing capacity challenges as the pandemic continued. The specific Advisor role has proved beneficial to OAWY. A focused role allows for increased focus on quality assurance. As a result, fewer cases are deferred due to outstanding information. There has been an improvement in the quality of documentation presented to the adoption panel. With four panel chairs across the eight panels and a wide variation in membership, a consistent Advisor ensures consistency in process and recommendations resulting in an improved staff and customer experience. There has been positive feedback from OAWY and Local Authority staff, Panel Chairs and Local Authority Agency Decision Makers regarding having a consistent Adoption Panel Advisor. This post has proved vital in raising standards and in ensuring timely and good quality decision making for children. Awarding a further contract to the current consultant is required, not just for consistency but also because of the importance of relationships to this work. The consultant has worked to understand the OAWY procedures and developed strong relationships with the Panel members and contributing social workers over a period of two years. Relationship building is crucial to this support. The time it would take for a new consultant to build the positive and strong relationships as well as the in-depth knowledge of procedures would be significant. This would be detrimental to the continuing development of good decision making by Panels, particularly at this time as the service continues to recover from the impact of the pandemic. Due to all the above factors, the Council considers that there are no reasonable alternatives or substitutes to the support provided by Highton Consultancy that can be utilised by the Council.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** Contract Award under Regulation 32(2)(b)(ii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 - Use of the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a Contract Notice - to Highton Consultancy for provision of independent advice and quality assurance to the OAWY Adoption Panel.