Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on new arrangements for the provision of works for those persons living in Council-owned properties that need adaptations to the home environment to promote independence and to enable them to continue to live in their homes in safety and with dignity.

The Cabinet Member advised that since 2021, the Council had supplemented the current in-house service with the Plymouth City Council Adaptation, Repair, Maintenance and Improvement (ARMI) Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) provided by Independence CIC (INCIC).  The DPS arrangement had been in place for private properties since 2019 and extending it to Council-owned properties enabled the Council to reduce a backlog of jobs which had accumulated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and resourcing issues with the incumbent provider. 

The use of the DPS arrangement for Council-owned properties had provided a more efficient and cost-efficient solution, enabled by flexibility, economies of scale and increased competition amongst suppliers.  Therefore, the intention was for the Council to renew the access agreement to allow it to use the DPS for disabled adaptation works and services to both private and Council properties for an initial four-year term, with the option to extend for two further periods of two years.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree that the Council enters into an access agreement in respect of the Adaptation, Repair, Maintenance and Improvement (ARMI) Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) provided by Independence CIC (INCIC) for the provision of disabled adaptation works and services, in accordance with the strategy set out in the report; and

(ii)  Authorise the Strategic Director, Children and Adults, in consultation with the Chief Legal Officer, to award and enter into the call-off contracts and all other necessary or ancillary agreements with the chosen suppliers over the duration of the access agreement.