Commissioning – National contracts (part II)

Earlier this year, I participated in a Local Government Association (LGA) workshop around developing a new set of documents for the national contracts for independent fostering and residential children’s home placements. Hertfordshire County Council is leading this workstream, sponsored by the LGA and supported by the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers and the Independent Children’s Homes Association.

This was the second national contracts workshop following a previous event held late last year that I attended along with representatives from 40 local authorities (National framework contracts, CYP Now, November 2019). Here, we questioned the fitness for purpose of the existing contracts, which were designed to support the kind of framework purchasing that has given way to more dynamic and diverse commissioning arrangements. We agreed that while these documents contained some useful elements, they need a refresh to ensure they remained current and relevant. We have since been mapping good practice through the LGA’s children’s commissioning and procurement group, and sharing local contracts to develop key lines of enquiry.