Agenda

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am two working days before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet Member’s delegated powers.

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

EXEMPT ITEMS

In the event that any Member or Officer wishes to discuss the information set out in the Annex 2, the Cabinet member for Adult Services will be invited to resolve to exclude the public for the consideration of that Annex  by passing a resolution in relation to that item in the following terms:

"that the public be excluded during the consideration of the Annex since it is likely that if they were present during that discussion there would be a disclosure of "exempt" information as described in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 and specified below the item in the Agenda and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information on the grounds set out in that item.".

NOTE: The report does not contain exempt information and is thus available to the public.  The exempt information is contained in the confidential annex.

THE ANNEX TO THE REPORT HAS NOT BEEN MADE PUBLIC AND SHOULD BE REGARDED AS ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ BY MEMBERS AND OFFICERS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE THEM.

THIS IS FOR REASONS OF COMMERCIAL SENSITIVITY AND THE FINANCIAL RISK TO THE COUNCIL IF THE CONTENTS ARE DISCLOSED.

THIS ALSO MEANS THAT THE CONTENTS SHOULD NOT BE DISCUSSED WITH OTHERS AND NO COPIES SHOULD BE MADE.

Forward Plan Ref: 2011/213

Contact: Ann Nursey, Lead Commissioner Learning Disability Services Tel: (01865) 323669

Report by Director for Social & Community Services (CMDAS4).

(The information contained in the Annex is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed category:

3    –    information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

It is considered that in this case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would prejudice the commercial position of the parties involved.

Ridgeway Partnership (Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust) is commissioned by Oxfordshire County Council to provide both social care and specialist health services to people with learning disabilites in Oxfordshire. The total contract value is £20m per annum and they are the largest learning disability service provider in Oxfordshire.

In line with the Department of Health's policy that all NHS Trusts have to become Foundation Trusts, or become part of an existing Foundation Trust by 2014, the Strategic Health Authority is currently leading a process through which existing Foundation Trusts are bidding to acquire Ridgeway Partnership. As the main commissioner of Ridgeway's services, the Oxfordshire Lead Commissioner is a member of the project board.

On 5 July 2011 the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, through a delegated decision, agreed to include the services purchased from Ridgeway Partnership by Oxfordshire County Council in the NHS merger/acquisitions process, and on 17 January 2012 Cabinet received a report on progress and took the decision to  delegate the final approval to the Cabinet Member for Adult Services and the Cabinet Member for Finance & Property.

This report outlines the final stages of the merger/acquisition process and requests approval to proceed with the Council's contracts transferring under statutory transfer to the preferred bidder.

Due to issues of commercial confidentiality and the need for approval by the Boards of the Strategic Health Authority and Ridgeway Partnership before the preferred bidder is announced, this report does not identify the preferred bidder. Details of the final scores of the named bidders are provided in a confidential annex available to the Cabinet Member for Adult Services and the Cabinet Member for Finance & Property.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services and the Cabinet Member for Finance & Property are RECOMMENDED to approve the transfer of the services the Council purchases to the preferred bidder, or to the reserve bidder in the event that transfer to the preferred bidder is not able to proceed.