Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director of Growth, Planning and Housing

7.1     Barbara Brownlee, Director of Housing & Regeneration, introduced a report that provided a background to the Council’s Housing Options Service and its contract which is due to expire at the end of September 2017. 

7.2     With the expiry of the existing contract, and the introduction of a new Rough Sleeper Strategy in 2017, the Council has an opportunity to review frontline service delivery and reshape the service to be more responsive to the needs of residents.

7.3     The purpose of the report was to inform and gain support from the Scrutiny Committee on the overall strategy for and reshaping of the service and its intended procurement.

7.4     Vikki Everett, Senior Consultant, Garnet Consulting Ltd, addressed the committee.  She explained that she had been appointed by the Council to manage the procurement of the re-commissioned service and to deliver a realistic and successful mobilisation of the contract.  She provided a brief summary of her background which included experience in outsourcing and the transformation of services.

7.5     Ms Everett highlighted that there are elements of the service where there are well developed and very mature markets i.e. frontline advice services, property management, rent collection, lettings etc.  The element of service that is not typically outsourced by Councils and where there is a less developed market are the statutory housing/homelessness functions e.g. duty to make enquiries into cases of homelessness or threatened homelessness, duty to make arrangements to ensure social services are aware of cases where applicants with children are homeless or threaten with homelessness, duties to assist and accommodate those eligible cases.  Typically, Council’s have retained these services in house Hence, for these statutory elements of the service, there is not a developed market. This also informed the Council’s approach of splitting the service into Lots to attract competition for those areas of service where there are providers already delivering these services elsewhere.

7.6     The Committee considered the proposals put forward which were as follows:

1.       The creation of a more agile frontline advice service that enables greater mobile working, outreach advice, collaboration and integration with other related services such as Children and Adult services, promotion of and access to employment services, in addition to promoting self-serve and digital advice solutions.

2.       The procurement of the service in four ‘lots’ that will encourage competition by appealing to experienced providers that are currently delivering specialist services within this and related sectors and encourage providers to consider the formation of partnerships and consortium arrangements to deliver the requirements of the Council.

3.       The movement towards a partnering approach with providers that will enable the transformation of these services over time and ensure a more flexible service that can respond adequately to the changing demands and legislative framework in addition to the impacts that other broader Council initiatives such as the Integrated Customer Service, One Front Door and Digital Transformation initiatives will have on these services.   

4.       The re-shaping of the service that forms a clearer distinction between the ‘people’ and ‘property’ aspects of the service and places greater emphasis on frontline advice, homeless prevention and self-serve solutions.

7.7           The Committee explored the issues and in the ensuing discussion raised a number of issues.

7.8           Members noted that there is a medium term planning (MTP) saving target linked to homelessness for 2017/18 of £500,000.  The committee asked whether there was confidence that splitting the contract into 4 lots will deliver the required savings given that some of the market is less developed.  Ms Everett explained that there are undoubtedly some risks associated with this that will need to be effectively mitigated through the procurement process and contractual and governance arrangements that are put in place.  This is why there is a preference to have a lead contractor that partners with specialist providers.  As part of the reshaping of the contract contractors will be incentivised to implement innovative solutions and provide better value for money through a risk and reward mechanism.  The Director of Housing & Regeneration explained that some service provision is duplicated within the Council.  For example, the Council currently funds two different streams of homelessness prevention advice: The reshaping of the contract provides an opportunity to eliminate this duplication resulting in savings to the Council.

7.9           Ms Everett advised that the strategy had been informally tested with the market.  Twenty three providers had expressed an interest in all or some of the lots, 15 organisations had participated in the soft market testing sessions and there was a high level of support for the overall strategy across all 4 lots. 

7.10       The committee asked whether consideration had been given to whether some aspects of the service would be better delivered in-house or by CityWest Homes.  The Director of Housing & Regeneration advised that the Council does not currently provide many elements of the service in-house including single person homeless services. In her view the latter would be better provided by experienced specialist providers.  She considered that whilst the Council could deliver Lot 3 (housing assessment, allocations and nominations) itself she believed there was greater merit in accessing a well-developed, mature market as well as keeping all the services together in one procured contract.

7.11       The committee noted that emphasis will be placed in the new contract on shifting access to the Housing Options Service away from a traditional reception facility to a more streamlined and digitally informed environment.  The Director of Housing & Regeneration was referred to the fact that the service users are likely to be the least digitally experienced and for some English may not be their first language.  Ms Brownlee explained that while there is an intention to promote self-service and provide digital advice solutions there will still be a human element behind the processes which people can engage with where required.  She advised that all local authorities were further digitalising their services and that the City Council was some way behind its peers in this respect.

7.12       Members reflected on the interdependencies between the services and were keen to know how the service would ensure that users will have a smooth transition between the different elements.  Ms Brownlee informed members that to assist the successful contractor(s) the Council was mapping the customer journey in a pilot in conjunction with The Passage.  She stated that the reshaped service should provide a better experience for users as there would be a greater emphasis in comparison with the current contract on early intervention and homeless prevention.  Ms Everett also advised that work was taking place on developing common branding across the different elements of the service so that there is no difference from the perspective of the user.

7.13   RESOLVED: Following careful consideration, the Committee endorsed the overall strategic approach to the reshaping and procurement of the Housing Options Service.  It has requested that a further update be provided to the committee as the procurement moves forward.