Issue details

Barnet is the lead authority for the West London Alliance Dynamic Purchasing Vehicle for Children’s Independent Fostering Agencies (“IFA DPV”). The IFA DPV is capable of use by the 15 Boroughs, and by certain other interested Local Authorities named in the Official Journal of the European Union (“OJEU”) Notice.

This report seeks permission to extend overarching agreements that have been awarded under the IFA DPV.

The original overarching agreements awarded under the IFA DPV are for a 3 year term, from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021, and the original Delegated Power Report to award the contracts and the contract terms of the conditions include the option to extend for a further 3 years on a 1+1+1 extension basis. This report seeks authorisation to extend these contracts for the full 3 years in one go from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024.

As the lead borough for the IFA DPV, the Council will hold the overarching contract agreements and extensions with successful IFA providers. The Council will then be able to continue to call off individual fostering placements to meet the needs of local children and young people.

It should be noted that the West London Alliance has recently changed its name to the Commissioning Alliance. This variation will be implemented for all IFA DPV contracts from 1 April 2021.

In addition, the Professional Indemnity threshold level required to join the DPV will be reduced from £5m to £2m from 1 April 2021.This is in recognition of the fact that the current rate precluded a large number of providers in the market from joining.

The arrangement for young people’s savings will be reworded in the contract to enable the placing Local Authority to retain responsibility for arranging savings for children in care.

This approach is in line with Barnet’s preferred process. Furthermore, where Local Authorities seek to make a block contract arrangements via the DPV, the placing Local Authorities may choose to open up the opportunity to providers outside of the DPV on the understanding that the provider will subsequently join the DPV.