Issue - meetings

The Executive Advisory Board (EAB) was invited to consider the mandate in respect of the Careline service.  The mandate addressed the following areas:

·             Introduction

·             Strategy

·             Options Evaluation

·             Considerations

·             Resources, including potential costs to proceed to the next stageto develop the Strategic Outline Case

·             Issues, Assumptions and Risks

·             Dependencies, Constraints and Opportunities

·             Reviewer List

·             Next Steps

The mandate set out five potential strategic options to deliver a solution.  The Options consisted of (1) Do nothing, (2a) Do something, (2b) Do something, (2c) Do something or (3) Do most.  Having considered the mandate at its meeting held on 2 March 2022, the Executive / Management Team Liaison Group recommended that Options (2a) to outsource the entire service to a private external operator or (2b) to outsource to another Council provider, should be pursued.  Local authorities currently providing this service to other councils were Mole Valley and Runnymede.

The Head of Community Services gave an introductory presentation in respect of the mandate which explained that Careline was a 24-hour emergency call system to assist vulnerable people in the Borough to live independently in their own home.  There were two aspects to the service.  The first aspect, operated by the Council’s in-house Community Services Careline team, involved the installation, updating, maintenance and management of people’s accounts to have a Lifeline trigger pendant to wear or a smoke alarm fitted into their property.  The second aspect featured a 24-hour call centre, operated under contract by PPP Taking Care, which responded to emergency calls from clients for assistance.  The Careline service included the sheltered housing schemes in the Borough.

The reason for pursuing the mandate at present was that the current contract with PPP Taking Care was due to expire in May 2022 and significant investment in technology and equipment would be required to enable the service to continue as communication providers were transforming the telecommunications network in the UK from the traditional hard wired telephone lines to a digital system.  The current contractor estimated that the cost of the digital upgrade to cater for the number of people in the Council’s scheme was approximately £350,000.

The imminent end of the contract with PPP Taking Care to provide the Council’s call centre offered an opportunity to outsource the entire Careline service to an external provider under one contract to provide the most cost efficient and effective service to the most vulnerable residents in the best manner whilst ensuring the risk in respect of the digital transfer was minimised.  A six month extension of the contract with PPP Taking Care was being sought to enable the Council to undertake the procurement process leading to the award of a new Careline contract.

The following points arose from related questions, comments and discussion for forwarding to the Executive:

1.           Waverley Borough Council (WBC) provided an identical Careline service to this Council utilising the same call centre provider, PPP Taking Care, although its contract was not due for renewal for some time and it was therefore not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57