Agenda item

Procurement and Implementation of Children's Social Care Case Management System

Decision:

RESOLVED

KEY DECISION

That the Executive:

a) Agreed to proceed with the replacement of the Case Management System for the Children’s Social Care across Northamptonshire, which will be operated by Northants Children’s Trust (NCT), contribution by North Northamptonshire is £1.236m as outlined in section 5.5.

b) Delegated authority to the Portfolio Holder for Children, Families, Education and Skills, in liaison with the Executive Director for Children’s Services, to take any further decisions and actions required to implement the Case Management System and award contracts in relation to this.

c) Recommended to Council that it delegates authority to the Executive Member of Finance and Transformation in consultation with the Executive Director of Finance and Performance to access and utilise revenue reserves to fund the Case Management System for Children’s Social Care.

Reason for Recommendations: To implement a new Case Management System which is fit for purpose and meets the statutory obligations in delivering Children’s Social Care across Northamptonshire.

Alternative Options Considered:

· For the current system (CareFirst) to continue to be used impacting the transformation and process changes to be reflected on the case management system.

· For the Eclipse system to be implemented under the current contract. However, the contract will still expire in Jan 2025 and a re-procurement would need to begin prior to implementation of the system.

· To have no case management system would not be a viable option that could be considered.

· There are no other case management software applications in use within the Council that that could be utilised by NCT.

Minutes:

The Chair invited Cllr Lyn Buckingham to address the Executive. Cllr Buckingham sought clarity on the finances involved in the request for a Children’s Social Care Case Management System.

The Chair thanked Cllr Buckingham for her comments and clarified that the current contractual arrangements would come to an end in January 2025 and there would therefore be a cost to implement a new Case Management System contract.

The Chair then invited Cllr Dorothy Maxwell to speak. Cllr Maxwell stated that it was time for the Council to take responsibility for delivering its own programme.

The Chair thanked Cllr Maxwell for her comments before inviting Cllr Scott Edwards, Executive Member for Children, Families, Education and Skills to introduce a report that sought approval to proceed with the replacement of the Case Management System for Children’s Social Care across Northamptonshire, to be operated by Northamptonshire Children’s Trust through a contribution by North Northamptonshire Council.

Cllr Edwards stated that the current contract had no provision to be extended beyond January 2025, therefore a new system contract was required. The meeting heard that a previous capital bid for funding of the procurement and implementation costs associated with a new system had been submitted to Strategic Capital Board in June 2022. However, following the NNC Capital Board and further due diligence it was now confirmed as being a revenue bid, as it was deemed that an asset would not be created, the system being “cloud-based” and therefore could not be funded from capital resources.

The costs of the new system would be split between West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council on a 56%/44% basis, the total contribution by North Northamptonshire being £1.236m.