Agenda, decisions and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relevant to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

No Members of the public were present.

To consider the award of these contracts.

1.    That approval be given to award the contracts for those services detailed in Group A.

2.    That authority be delegated to the Director of Public Health to award the contracts detailed in Group B, in consultation with the Leader, who will inform the appropriate Portfolio Holder.

Cabinet received a report on 29 September 2015 on the Commissioning of the Integrated Lifestyle & Wellness Support System at which time it was agreed to commission, procure and award contracts for the following Public Health services:

·         Stop Smoking Services and Alcohol Brief Interventions

·         Community Sexual Health Services – mandated service

·         NHS Health Checks – mandated service

·         Provider Plus – the provision of assessment to access services, specialist stop smoking services and specialist public health advice

·         Physical Activity, Healthy Eating and Weight Management services.

All Public Health Services transferred from the NHS in April 2013 needed to be recommissioned by April 2016, which gave an opportunity to open up the market to other providers to give choice to the residents of Cheshire East, and also to revisit the service specifications and review and enhance them for improved delivery and outcomes.

Since that time the Director of Legal Services had advised that the delegation made at the Cabinet meeting on 29 September 2015, to a mix of officers and Members, was not in accordance with the Local Government Act 2000 and that the Leader should, therefore, now take the decision in relation to the award of the contracts. 

Details were given of the procurement and assessment process to date and it was recommended that 44 contracts for the provision of sexual health services, 38 for NHS Health Checks services, and 4 for Stop Smoking/Alcohol Services be awarded.  (Group A in the report).  

At a later date further decisions would be needed for the contracts for Provider Plus, and for the Physical Activity, Healthy Eating and Weight Management Services (Group B in the report).  On discussion it was agreed that this should be delegated to the Director of Public Health, in consultation with the Leader, who undertook to inform the appropriate Portfolio Holder.

RESOLVED

1.    That approval be given to award the contracts for those services detailed in Group A in accordance with the recommendations made at the meeting.

2.    That authority be delegated to the Director of Public Health to award the contracts detailed in Group B, in consultation with the Leader, who will inform the appropriate Portfolio Holder.