It is time to deliver some ‘quick hit’ savings and improvements to commissioning and procurement of children’s services! Léonie’s recent article in Children and Young People Now highlights how flexing payment terms, earlier settlement of claims for inflationary pay rises and fee increases, and focussing on linking these to improved outcomes costs nothing but bring in tangible financial and wider benefits which can be delivered quickly. Regional co-operatives or their alternatives plus the procurement bill all add to market uncertainty. There may be no positive impact from any of these and they will take time to be delivered; so in her article, Léonie suggests a number of the easier to deliver and more wide ranging approaches with earlier savings and a more immediate positive impact. Click here to read the article.
The challenges of the procurement bill in 2023 and beyond. Due to become law shortly, we still do not know how children’s or adult social care will be treated by the new legislation. Léonie is in discussion with the DfE (Children’s Homes Policy and SEND teams) about the opportunities and challenges for children’s services under the procurement bill.
Why focussing on local locality based procurement for children in care is a more effective method of delivering child focussed value for money services than large regional frameworks. Léonie’s response to the CMA’s Children’s social care market study interim report puts the case. Click here to read the article.
Let’s take a deep breath and try something different! Léonie challenges current approaches to procurement of children’s services by offering a radical approach to achieving effective, value for money solutions for children’s placements see article - Municipal Journal on line.
I am honoured and delighted to have been appointed as a trustee of NAPAC (National Association for People Abused in Childhood).
Article for the Municipal Journal which examines why it is so difficult to achieve value for money and effective procurement for some of the most vulnerable people in our society, children in care and offers solutions. Click here to read the article.
Article, re-imagining the current approach to the procurement of care services for Children & Young People Now as part of their Special Report on Children’s Care Commissioning. This article sets out an innovative approach to a very topical subject. Click here to read the article.
Response on the Competition and Markets Authority, Children’s Social Care Market Study, Invitation to Comment. Click here to read the article.
Article for the Municipal Journal, Tackling Covid’s hit on leisure. Click here to read the article.
Article - The Impact of Covid on Local Authority Leisure Services: an article for Lawyers in Local Government about the legal and wider implications of Covid on local authority leisure. Click here to read the article.
How re-imagining commissioning and procurement can better meet the needs of older children in care via exciting and innovative pilots: led by West Sussex County Council (WSCC) and working with WSCC and three further local authorities, we are providing legal and procurement support to this DfE funded multi-skilled collaborative project. The project board and project team include local authority and provider representatives and we are all committed to achieving placement solutions which keep children local, avoid the need for unregistered care and (most of all) provide the type of care these children need whether fostering or residential. The pilots will test the flexibilities within the public procurement regime to provide a creative and flexible approach. Click here for more details.
Out Now! A Practical Guide to Local Authority Leisure Contracts in England and Wales in the Time of Covid-19, Brexit and Beyond: I am delighted to announce the release of this highly topical book. The book provides busy lawyers and others with the tools needed to achieve successful value for money leisure and culture procurements. It also provides an explanation of the legal implications of Covid-19 on leisure contracts and their modification, management of Covid-19 claims, planning for the best model of service delivery in the short term (if there is contractor failure), longer term post Covid issues and much more. You can obtain the book from the publishers, Law Brief and they will also offer you a free chapter to read online. If you buy from Law Brief I will offer you an exclusive 10% discount. You can obtain this by clicking this link and then entering the promotional code WPHR7 when prompted, which will also give you free delivery.
Blog - What Westminster and Good Law tell us about the Courts’ attitude to procurement post-Covid See the links below on two important post Covid procurement cases. The Westminster case provides guidance on the interpretation of a local authority leisure contract and its impact on post Covid compensation. Good Law is a successful challenge against the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care who failed to publish a slew of awards of PPE and other post Covid equipment. This case is only the first case (with a later case to follow in May 2021) by Good Law challenging the legality of the urgent awards so watch this space! Click here to read more.
Response on the Green Paper: Transforming public procurement. Click here to read more.
We are delighted to offer a highly topical interactive on-line event on 21 October in partnership with NAPF. This will identify better value for money, more child focussed approaches to commissioning for hard-pressed local authorities. The event will challenge existing approaches to commissioning and procurement of fostering services for children. Offering you an opportunity to ask questions and make comments, we will also cover the impact of COVID-19 on new and existing contractual relationships. Click here for tickets and more details.
We have been providing support to academy schools, provider trade associations, local authorities others on commissioning and procurement of children’s services and more widely especially SEND where we have been at the forefront of advising on whether the public contracts regulations are applicable to SEND provision in view of the DfE guidance. Support and training can be offered at authority or regional level for lawyers, commissioners, accountants, policy officers. To discuss, please contact Léonie.
Leisure Contracts - COVID-19 and More Extensive Support for Local AuthoritiesSupporting several authorities in settling COVID-19 financial claims caused by leisure centre closure and the commercial impact of socially distanced re-opening. This includes providing guidance on the meaning of individual contractual arrangements, modifications and the impact of recent PPN guidance and on the wider impact of the pandemic e.g. on current re-procurement options, recognising that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach.
COVID-19 and Leisure Centres: The Impact on Local Authorities and Their Partners for MBLA very successful one hour live Webinar at the beginning of September which considered the contractual and wider issues when indoor leisure services are externalised, modifications, supplier relief, the PPNs and disputes, the longer term impact of the pandemic on service delivery, relationships with leisure trusts, State Aid, re-procurement and more.
This training can be offered in-house to your lawyers, commissioners, accountants and others where we could look more specifically at your organisation’s challenges. Please contact Léonie to discuss.
Procurement Within Children’s Services - Repeat Learn Live Webinar in March 2021 for MBLAfter a very successful one hour live Webinar, Procurement Within Children’s Services in September, join Léonie at MBL for a repeat on 21 March 2021. This will include the statutory background to children’s services, current approaches to procurement of services, the ‘light touch’ purchasing flexibilities, COVID PPNs and more.
Training on Public Procurement and State Aid for MBLLéonie has delivered a range of very successful training on public procurement and State Aid for MBL over many years. See below for a range of upcoming on-line and face-to-face masterclasses and courses:
Public Procurement and the Public Contracts Regulations Masterclass - Brexit and The Fresh Challenges, Learn Live 1 December 2020, a three hour interactive Webinar.
Public Procurement and State Aid Post Brexit, What Next?, on 2 December, this one hour refresher is a recorded Webinar. It will capture the latest news on the future of public procurement and State Aid after 31 January 2021.
Public Procurement and the Public Contracts Regulations Masterclass - Brexit and The Fresh Challenges, 20 January 2021, Central London (in person, depending on the pandemic), a four hour version of the learn live Masterclass on 1st December which also includes an outline consideration of State Aid.
February - May 2019
West London Alliance (a regional consortium of seven West London authorities): supporting an accreditation process for providers of social care support for post 16 year old young people. As there are no statutory registration requirements, young people leaving care are at risk of receiving unsatisfactory care support. With my help, WLA, have developed an accreditation process to obtain a list of high quality accredited providers.
West London Alliance
A redraft of the spot purchase agreement for emergency residential/foster care of children/young people. WLA now have a precedent for below public procurement thresholds particularly for agreements with providers who are not part of WLA’s existing frameworks.
February 2018 - February 2019
Welsh Local Government Association/National Commissioning Board: drafted a practical legal guide to modern, outcome based collaborative procurement for social care commissioners and procurement officers. This is part of the suite of training and other projects commissioned by WLGA from us. The guide is on the WLGA website and available here.
May 2018 - January 2019
Domiciliary care procurement: supporting two Welsh local authorities in delivering a modern flexible procurement approach and documents delivering an improved model for domiciliary care to older people. At a time of financial stringency, there is a focus on outcomes in Welsh legislation (the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and Regulation and Inspection of Social Care Act (Wales) 2016 and Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015).
May - November 2018
Outline business case for procurement of services for children with complex needs: for a consortium of authorities who wanted to achieve modern outcome focussed legal documents
January 2019 to present
North Wales: an appraisal of alternative delivery models for a harbour, marina and associated land, recommending a model which will drive economic development and greater leisure use of the Council’s flagship marina and harbour (with Strategic Leisure).
October 2017 - to present
Gwynedd Council leisure centre transfer to a Council owned company: we are delighted to have supported the transfer to Byw’n Iach, the first project of its kind in North Wales. Click here to see. Bwy’n Iach enshrines the 7 well-being goals set out in the Future Generations Act in its vision and documents and is developing better facilities, new activities and offers, all whilst achieving substantial tax-based savings.
November 2018 - present
Isle of Anglesey Alternative Delivery models: appraising the legal and procurement implications of a wide range of ADM models to achieve a secure future including investment for the Council’s leisure centres (with Strategic Leisure).
2018 - present
Inspire Hounslow: a comprehensive draft and review of the charity’s suite of strategic and governance documents so it will be a ‘best in class’ grant giving charity. Inspire Hounslow is a Hounslow based charity which grant aids organisations assisting disadvantaged young people in Hounslow (see https://inspirehounslow.co.uk).
An alternative commissioning model for residential care, which is cheaper and better - see Article in the Municipal Journal 1st February 2018
Léonie Cowen and Andrew Rome set out one way of achieving more effective and efficient commissioning for children's residential care.
This highlights that:-
For the full article see the M J (Municipal Journal) for 1st February at page 20.
Léonie or Andrew can be contacted for details on how we can assist you to implement more effective commissioning and procurement of social care.
ADSS Cymru Autumn 2017 Seminar: November 2017, Léonie was a platform speaker, talking on the Steps Required for Improving Outcomes for Individuals and Carers in need of Care and Support and she led a workshop on Innovative Governance Models for Commissioning or Delivery, the Controlled Company Model.
National Commissioning Board for Wales: November 2017, Léonie led a very successful two day Workshop on the A - Z of Delivering a Commissioning and Procurement Process for Social Care (Focussing on Home Care and Supporting People). This followed the equally successful one day Workshop on the New Procurement Regime and its Implications for Social Care Commissioning and Procurement in March 2017.
Gwynedd Council: October 2017, we were appointed to assist the Council in delivering a controlled (Teckal) company for its leisure centres, a first such model for leisure services in Wales. We provided the legal input into the report which recommended this option.
Léonie jointly delivered the final Keynote Session with iMPOWER on the future of commissioning children’s services and also delivered a workshop on anti-competitive practices, confidentiality and an update of legal issues at the National Commissioning and Contracting Training Conference for Children’s Services.
Please also see our Social Care and Social Enterprise and Training Track Records
Pan-Wales training and support on the Public Procurement Regime for Social Care Commissioning and Procurement for the WLGA/National Commissioning Board.
Please also see our Social Care and Social Enterprise and Training Track Records
We completed a full contract refresh together with an extension the contract period and new leases for Rushcliffe Borough Council as part of the Council’s ambitious £15 million Council Civic complex redevelopment with enhanced sports provision.
Please also see our Culture and Leisure Procurement Track Record
Completed an open market procurement of the Council’s leisure centres for Powys County Council in conjunction with V4 which delivered significant capital investment of about £2.5 million and a 32% greater reduction in funding over 15 years than the original target.
Please also see our Culture and Leisure Procurement Track Record
The Public Procurement Regulations 2015 will be a threat to Part B services, social enterprises and mutuals, please see our brief explanation of the new rules.
Léonie Cowen & Associates
30 Kingswood Avenue
Queens Park, London NW6 6LR
t: 020 7604 5870
e: admin@lcowen.co.uk
