SB Cares still a winner, according to designers' website

by DOUG COLLIE

The directors of the firm which convinced Scottish Borders Council it should transfer adult social care services to a soon to be liquidated arms length organisation continue to promote SB Cares as a successful case study in a bid to win business from other clients.

Care and Health Solutions (CHS) devote an entire page on their website to their part in the creation of the Borders Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) including a glowing quote from a senior officer at SBC who describes the project as "a major success".

It seems news of the impending demise of SB Cares - Borders councillors are expected to vote it out of existence this Thursday - has yet to reach Russell Thompson, director of CHS, and the consultancy's associate director Clive Dove-Dixon who worked on the business case and implementation of the SBC's malfunctioning ALEO.

As reported here and in the local media the problems and issues facing SB Cares is forcing councillors who voted for its establishment in 2015 to now sanction taking the services back in house, a move which can only be regarded as embarrassing for all involved.

But that is certainly not the impression given by the project's drivers at CHS who claim to have carried out similar appraisals and carried out other work on social care for 24 councils throughout the UK.

The story of SB Cares is portrayed in a very upbeat manner and tells how the project team dealt with "challenging media enquiries and challenging trade union relationships" along the way.

According to CHS: "In late 2013 the commissioners and directors of Adult Social Care in the Scottish Borders were facing serious problems in relation to their In-House Provider Services, which included, Older Peoples Residential, OP and LD Day Centres, a Homecare Service and a Community Equipment Store with telecare monitoring.

"The problems that they were facing were not untypical of most councils, including drastic budget costs to be made, increasing numbers of personal budget-holders, a weak private sector that was vulnerable to failure and an expensive workforce with low morale from continual service re-designs and management reorganisations. The senior management team recognised that the Members needed to see a comprehensive and independent appraisal of how these services could be transformed so they could continue to be delivered for the benefit of residents and at best value to the Council."

The Council decided to commission Care and Health Solutions Ltd to prepare and deliver an independent appraisal of the options available to their services. It is claimed CHS were selected for this work as their experience in this area of adult social care was extensive and they and had worked with over 10% of the councils in the UK on the future of their adult social care services.

CHS's report recommended that the services be transferred into an LLP and also included an indicative timeline and project plan for the implementation of the selected option. 

"The recommendation was accepted as the LLP option provided the following: • The Council would still have ultimate control of the services through 100% ownership • The transfer would allow a cultural change in the services to enable better working practices and develop efficiencies • The services could provide/sell services to budget-holders and self-funders.

"Full-time senior management would provide focus and scrutiny of costs and productivity not experienced before. • All efficiencies, cost savings and income from new services would benefit the Council through reduced service costs, additional service provision or profit-share. • The LLP would be the “Provider of Last Resort” commissioned by the Council in the event of a market failure."

The web page goes on to explain"The Business Case (BC) was written for the preferred option (LLP) and involved working with a wider group of stakeholders over several months, investigating the preferred option in more detail and building a report that was robust enough for the Members to be able to justify their decision to implement and launch the LLP.

"The detailed BC was scrutinised and tested by the Corporate Finance team, the Commissioners, Procurement and the Legal department. The ultimate sign-off was given by the Section 95 Officer (equivalent of S151 Officer in England and Wales) and was a legal requirement before implementation could be started."

In SBC's case the so-called Section 95 Officer happens to be the council's head of finance whose report to council this week recommends the radical move to bring the SB Cares functions back under full control of the local authority.

CHS go on to write: "The project created, registered, named and branded a new company, written and signed complicated Partnership Agreements, undertook detailed consultation with 800 staff and created almost as many new email accounts. The project team designed, built and published a new company website and moved into a new head office, wrote new leases and sent letters to over 3000 clients."

Philip Barr, Interim Managing Director of SB Cares and Depute Chief Executive at SBC is quoted as saying: "The implementation of SB Cares has been a major success from both the Council’s and the Company’s point of view. There is no doubt that this result would not have been possible without the advice, knowledge and involvement of Clive and Russ from CHS. Their experience helped the project make the right decisions at the right times and their continual reminder of timelines and deadlines ensured the project was delivered on schedule.”