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ITEM SP9

SUPPORTING PEOPLE COMMISSIONING BODY – 15 DECEMBER 2006

ACCREDITATION OF SERVICE PROVIDERS

This paper is for information

Background

  1. The Commissioning Body approved an Oxfordshire Supporting People Accreditation Policy at its meeting in June 2004, based on Government guidance. The accreditation process was carried out in 2006 by the Procurement Team in the County Council’s Social and Community Services Directorate.

    2. Accreditation Questionnaire

  2. The first step of the accreditation process involved some research into how other Supporting People Authorities carried out their accreditation process. A useful visit was made to Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Supporting People Team in June to discuss how they accredited their service providers.

  3. A questionnaire was then drawn up in order to analyse a service provider’s suitability for Accreditation. A copy of Surrey Supporting People Team’s Accreditation Questionnaire was obtained, and this was amended to suit Oxfordshire.

  4. This questionnaire was then sent out to all service providers currently holding contracts with Oxfordshire to complete - excluding statutory bodies which are exempt under the government from accreditation.

    5. Tracking questionnaires and details on providers

  5. A tracking spreadsheet was drawn up to monitor the return of questionnaires and to input certain information from the questionnaires, and also to detail which service providers could be ‘passported’, due to previous accreditation from another Supporting People authority, or due to holding other external accreditation certificates. This spreadsheet contains data drawn from the returned questionnaires which can subsequently be inputted into SWIFT (such as expiry dates, and external accreditation awards).

    6. Passporting Service Providers

  6. For service providers who had previously been accredited by another Supporting People Authority the accreditation process could be ‘passported’. All that was required was proof of accreditation (a photocopied Accreditation certificate). A phone call or email was then made to the accrediting authority to ensure that their accreditation process was robust.

  7. Many service providers hold other ‘external accreditation’ awards, for instance, Investors In People certificates, or CSCI certificates. In these cases the provider could be passported through certain sections of the accreditation process. For instance, holding Investors In People accreditation exempted the provider from the requirement for accreditation checks on Section 3 ‘Employment Policies’ and Section 4 ‘Robust Management’.

    8. Carrying out Checks on Service Providers

  8. The Accreditation checks involved looking at five different areas, corresponding with the five criteria stated in the government guidance. These were titled:

    1. Financial Viability

    2. Competent Administrative Procedures

    3. Employment Policies

    4. Robust Management

    5. Track Record and Competence

  1. ‘Financial Viability’ checks were carried out on those providers who could not be passported through this section. A Dun and Bradstreet financial check was carried out on service providers’ annual accounts. No providers were found to have a poor Dun and Bradstreet financial rating. Had this been the case more stringent checks, such as accessing a banker’s reference, could have been carried out.

  2. ‘Competent Administrative Procedure’ checks required ensuring that the service provider is, for example, a registered charity, and that they are registered with Companies House, and operating within their legal framework. Information was drawn from the questionnaires regarding this, and checks were also carried out on various websites (Housing Corporation, Charity Commission, Companies House).

  3. ‘Robust Management’ checks involved ensuring that the service provider had Business Plans in place, a governing instrument (i.e. deed of trust), and a suitable Board of Trustees, consisting of people with relevant experience and knowledge which the provider did not have problems filling.

  4. One service provider did not have a Business Plan in place and therefore could not be accredited. In this instance an emergency meeting was held (in this case with another Supporting People Administering Authority also accrediting the same provider, and the service provider’s management), to ensure that steps were taken to implement this business plan within an agreed timescale.

  5. For the sections ‘Employment Policies’ and ‘Track Record and Competence’ a decision was made in advance not to burden service providers by demanding documentation that they had already sent to the Supporting People Team as part of a service review (although a number of service providers sent this documentation anyway).

  6. The questionnaire asked all of the questions required to pass this section of the accreditation, and answers were evidenced through service review files and provider files held in the Supporting People office, and sometimes through extra evidencing information from the service provider.

  7. Meetings were also held with each of the Supporting People Team Quality and Performance Officers to discuss each service provider’s track record in delivering services to vulnerable people, their track record of cooperation and positive working with the Supporting People team, and their implementation of the Supporting People agenda. These meetings were also useful in order to be briefed about any issues or potential issues of concern with any providers.

    8. Summary Sheets and Certificate Awards

  8. After completing all the required accreditation checks, summary sheets were produced and issued to all providers, briefly summarising information about the provider (contact details, correspondent, type of organisation), how they passed each section of the accreditation criteria, and the expiry date of their accreditation/passport. For providers who were passported, this expiry date was three years from the date of their original accreditation, not three years from when they were passported by Oxfordshire.

  9. Accreditation certificates were produced for all providers who had at least one section directly assessed by Oxfordshire. Certificates run from August 2006 to August 2009. These were signed by Kate Wareing, Operations Manager for Social and Community Services, and issued to the relevant service providers. Outcomes of the Oxfordshire accreditation exercise are presented in Appendix 1.

    10. Future Reassessment

  10. The summary sheets held in the Supporting People office files detail when reassessment is due. Expiry date information was also inputted into the tracking spreadsheet, for future input into SWIFT.

  11. For providers who were passported, it is likely that the renewal of their accreditation award will be carried out by the Administering Authority who originally assessed the provider, meaning it is likely that the provider can be passported by Oxfordshire again in the future.

  12. Providers were instructed that they must inform the Supporting People Team if they fail to renew (or lose) any of their external accreditation awards, as these were used as a basis to passport many providers.

Mark Stephenson
Procurement Officer
Oxfordshire County Council S&CS Procurement Team

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