Letter from Surrey County Council NOT explaining how service users were officially manipulated & lied to by SABP & ended up worse off .

MENTAL HEALTH& LEARNING DISABILITY SERVICES
3RD floor Grosvenor House
Cross Lanes
GUUILDFORD
Surrey GU1 1FA


30 October 2006




Dear Mr Curley

Transfer of Old Moat Garden Centre

You wrote to David Davis, Chairman of Surrey County Council on 23 October 2006 making a formal complaint about the handling of the externalisation of the work services in East Surrey. As the Head of Service for Mental Health and Learning Disability I have been asked to respond formally to your complaint. Having examined the content of your correspondence I can give you an outline of the involvement of Surrey Council Council and an overview of the process that lead to the externalisation which I hope addresses the issues you raise.

Surrey County Council is the joint commissioner of the work and day services in partnership with the new Surrey Primary Care Trust for the services provided by the NHS Trust as well as those provided by the voluntary sector in East Surrey. The services run by Surrey & Borders Partnership NHS Trust (formally Surrey Oaklands NHS Trust) had been under review for over five years. There was a lack of clear direction for many of the services and the Trust was questioning whether these type of services should be the core business of the NHS. Referrals to the services were low and there was concern about the morale of service users and staff.

There was a concern from Commissioners that these services, although valued by the people who used them, were not meeting many other people’s needs and were not providing best value for money. The services provided by the NHS Trust were part of a much larger service level agreement which made it very difficult to establish accurate reporting and accountability for the services provided.

In our role as joint Commissioners, Surrey County Council and the former East Surrey Primary Care Trust and East Elmbridge & Mid Surrey Primary Care Trust commissioned a review of these services with the intention of re-tendering the services. This in our view was a process that would seek to ensure that services were value for money and of the highest quality for service users. The NHS Trust was eligible to participate in the tendering process but early on in the review process they decided not to do so as they did not see the provision of day and employment services as part of their core business.

Having established the commissioning intentions, the primary drivers behind the change process were to:-

* Gain better outcomes for current and future service users, particularly



o Support to gain and maintain employment
o Support to take part in the local community



* Modernise the services in line with the National Service Framework for Mental Health, the recommendations of the Social Inclusion Unit Report (2004), Valuing People (2001) and Our Health, Our Carer, Our Say White Paper (2006).

* Offer co-ordinated and flexible services which would allow individuals to create their own care and support pathways

* Be more responsive to individual’s needs in local areas, ensuring equality of access and an increased range and choice of services

* Attract new funding sources

* Bring in specialists in the area of employment from the voluntary sector building partnerships with the voluntary sector in line with Surrey Compact

* Involve service users and carers in the design, running and evaluation of services.



A Work Services Commissioning Group was established to oversee the change process comprising of representatives from the main organisations including service user and carer representation. Surrey County Council was represented on the Group by Donal Hegarty (Policy & Commissioning Manager, Adult Mental Health & Substance Misuse Services). This Group advertised for a Project Manager and following formal interviews Helen Lockett was appointed.

The Work Services Commissioning Group oversaw the review of the services, the development of new commissioning specifications, the tender process which was lead by Surrey County Council, the shaping of the final proposal and the public consultation process. Service users and carers were involved in the interviews for the Project Manager, developing the new service specifications, evaluating the tender submissions and shaping the final proposal.

The Work Services Commissioning Group also took the case for change to Surrey County Council Procurement Review Group (December 2004), the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (November 2005), East Surrey Primary Care Trust Board Meeting (November 2005) and Surrey & Borders Partnership NHS Trust Board (January 2006).

In terms of the concerns you raised about monitoring the new Contracts we now have clear commissioning specifications which are based on what service users and Carers told us they wanted from the services. All contracts have delivery targets which include regular service evaluation. The recent appointment of a NHS Commissioning Manager for Mental Health in East Surrey will strengthen the performance monitoring process.

You also raised concerns about Helen Lockett and her past work with MCCH, particularly the Paying a Wage Guide. The Work Services Commissioning Group was fully aware of the curriculum vitea (CV) of Helen Lockett and were particularly impressed with her work with Bob Groves who acted as her Mentor throughout ( he's actually her line manager at SCMH ) the project management. Bob Groves is a national expert on employment issues and as such we were delighted with Helen’s appointment as Project Manager. For your clarification Helen was not involved in the evaluation of the tenders or the selection of any of the new providers.

With regard to the assertion that the organisations are making a profit from the work, can I reassure you that the new voluntary sector providers are all not for profit providers and all their spend on services is both transparent and accountable.

Finally Surrey County Council and Surrey Primary Care Trust are committed to ensuring this service becomes a model of good practice in Surrey raising the profile of work opportunities for vulnerable people with mental health problems,. That is why we have committed to a five year contract with Richmond Fellowship and any comparisons with service cuts in Swindon are not relevant to the situation in Surrey.

I apologise for the rather lengthy and detailed response but I felt it was important that I addressed all the issues you raised demonstrating that the externalisation of the work service in East Surrey was a transparent and inclusive process that will benefit vulnerable service users with mental health problem both in the short and long term

I hope this response addresses all the issues you raised but if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely







Dave Sargeant

Head of Service - Mental Health & Learning Disability

Families Directorate – Adult Services




Cc David Davis, Chairman SCC

Andrew Webster, Strategic Director for Families (for information)

Sally Marks, CC & Executive Member (for information)

Donal Hegarty, Policy & Commissioning Manager, Adult MH (for information)