Provision of Outcomes based Commissioning of Edge of Care services - Social Impact Bond

Lancashire County Council intends to commission an outcome based Contract for an Edge of Care Service. The Council openly invited stakeholders to express their interest in participating in a market engagement event, which was scheduled for 10th December 2018.

The purpose of the event was to share the Council's commissioning strategy for the service, engage participants to provide feedback on the service specification and plan towards any potential forthcoming procurement.

During the event commissioners presented the Council's commissioning intensions for an outcomes based Edge of Care Service and feedback was sought through questionnaires and open discussions which the Council will consider and amend the Specification as appropriate.

The draft specification, presentations from the market engagement event and summary of feedback received and discussion held with stakeholders on included on this page below.

Summary of the Councils Proposed Service

Lancashire County Council intends to commission on a payment for outcomes basis a service to improve life chances for children and young people in some of the most deprived areas of Lancashire. The specific social issue the service seeks to address is a combination of avoiding the unnecessary entry of children and young people into care, reducing their duration in care, and impacting upon their high Risk of Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) through improving educational engagement and reading age. The Authority has been awarded a grant in principle by the Life Chances Fund to make a partial contribution to the outcome payments for the establishment of this Outcomes based Contract.

The service will operate at the cusp of care and either side of the care divide and be targeted on primary and secondary school-age children and young people within the Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle and Preston areas.

Based upon the anticipated size of the contract it is envisaged that the Service Providers solution will involve social investment and a Social Investment Bond (SIB) approach (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/social-impact-bonds). The Authority will not define the form of the Authority's SIB structure, but expects these to be under arrangements through which a social investor provides at least 50.1% of the funding in order for it to be complaint with the requirements for central government support via the Life Chances Fund.

It is anticipated that a Social Impact Bond approach will underpin the outcomes based service and that the SIB contract holder will commission independent evaluation to support continuous improvement and shared learning.

It is our intension that the contract would commence in September 2019.

Next Steps

The Council may share its commissioning intentions with stakeholders using this medium late January 2019. It is likely that the any potential procurement exercise will not be undertaken before January 2019.

Please keep updated via our tenders pages, further info will be available.

Additional information: Please note that this is not a tender exercise and participation (or non-participation) in dialogue will confer no advantage or disadvantage should commissioners commence a formal procurement process.