Commissioning and Brokerage Procedures

The London Borough of Haringey uses a Dynamic Purchasing System [DPS] for all domiciliary care, whether generic or specialist in nature.

All domiciliary care services should be sourced through the Brokerage team without exception.

If a person has specific or complex needs you must provide relevant information to Brokerage to assist them in identifying an appropriately skilled provider.

1. Social worker to complete a needs assessment and a Care and Support plan which clearly sets out how the care should be delivered;
2. Social worker to present the case at the Care Authorisation Panel to obtain funding agreement;
3. Once funding has been confirmed, the Care and Support plan will be sent to Brokerage via a workflow on mosaic;
4. The Care and Support plan will be allocated to a brokerage officer to source a provider to deliver the care stated in the plan;
5. Brokerage officer to put out a requirement on DPS; No personal information can be put on this requirement apart from the person's postcode;
6. Once the bidding process on DPS has ended, the brokerage officer will review all potential bids by reviewing the price and scoring the outcome statements on DPS;
7. The brokerage officer is to confirm the selected provider on the DPS platform and create a service agreement;
8. The brokerage officer is to then send the person's details, package of care details and Care and Support plan (via egress) to the selected provider; copying in the social worker so they are aware a provider has been sourced.
9. The brokerage officer is to then update mosaic accordingly and issue the provider with a purchase order.

Note: Where suspending or reducing the service will place the person or carer at risk you should not make any changes until risk management strategies have been agreed.

Suspending a service 

1. Person/family notifies social worker of any reason the service requires to be suspended e.g. hospital admission, going away on holiday etc;
2. Social worker to create Brokerage contact on mosaic with information as to when the services need to be suspended from and, if known the date that services need to recommence;
3. Workflow Brokerage to notify them of the above;
4. Brokerage will liaise with the provider to suspend (and recommence) the service;
5. Social Worker to inform the person (or their representative) of the suspension (and re-commencement) arrangements.

Reducing a service

1. Social worker to update the last Client Review and Support plan on mosaic (or complete a new form if no previous review record exists);
2. Workflow Brokerage to notify them of the change and the date it is to take effect;
3. Brokerage will liaise with the provider to reduce the service;
4. Brokerage to update mosaic with the new Care and Support plan
5. Social worker to inform the person (or their representative) of the reduction arrangements;
6. Workflow a 12 month review on mosaic to the review team.

Increasing a service

1. Social worker to complete a needs assessment and a Care and Support plan which clearly sets out how the increase in care should be delivered;
2. Social worker to present the case at the Care Authorisation Panel to obtain funding agreement;
3. Once funding has been confirmed, the Care and Support plan will be sent to Brokerage via a workflow on mosaic to notify them of the change and the date it is to take effect;
4. Brokerage will liaise with the provider to increase the service;
5. Brokerage will make the necessary changes on mosaic;
6. Social worker to inform the person (or their representative) of the increased arrangements;
7. Workflow a 6 week review on Mosaic to the social worker who requested the increase in care.

Note: If the increase is only temporary and you know the date it is to end you should also notify Brokerage of this. If the date is not known follow the guidance above to reduce the service when it is no longer needed.

Change of Provider (Brokerage Officer Guidance)

1. Start by challenging the change of provider: Ask social worker and/or provider if there is anything that could be changed in the existing arrangement that would allow it to continue – change of times, carer or tasks;
2. Request written explanations of the issues from the social worker and/or provider;
3. Tell social worker to submit a quality alert form to the Contract Monitoring Team;
4. Ask social worker to update Care and Support plan if possible;
5. The Care and Support plan will be allocated to a brokerage officer to source a provider to deliver the care stated in the plan;
6. Brokerage officer to put out a requirement on DPS; No personal information can be put on this requirement apart from the person's postcode;
7. Once the bidding process on DPS has ended, the brokerage officer will review all potential bids by reviewing the price and scoring the outcome statements on DPS;
8. The brokerage officer is to confirm the selected provider on the DPS platform and create a service agreement;
9. The brokerage officer is to then send the person's details, package of care details and Care and Support plan (via egress) to the selected provider; copying in the social worker so they are aware a provider has been sourced;
10. The brokerage officer is to then update mosaic accordingly and issue the provider with a purchase order.

The London Borough of Haringey uses a Dynamic Purchasing System [DPS] for all reablement.

All reablement service requests have to come to Brokerage to process via the single point of access team – otherwise they will not be accepted.

1. SPA will receive a pathway referral via the hospital;
2. SPA to screen these referrals and create a reablement care plan;
3. SPA to workflow brokerage to notify them of the care plan; number of hours per week and a breakdown of a daily care plan with a start date;
4. Brokerage officer to put out a requirement on DPS; No personal information can be put on this requirement apart from the person's postcode;
5. Once the bidding process on DPS has ended, the brokerage officer will review all potential bids by reviewing the price and scoring the outcome statements on DPS;
6. The brokerage officer is to confirm the selected provider on the DPS platform and create a service agreement;
7. The brokerage officer is to then send the person's details, package of care details and support plan (via egress) to the selected provider; copying in the reablement worker so they are aware a provider has been sourced;
8. The brokerage officer is to then update mosaic accordingly and issue the provider with a purchase order.

Increasing/decreasing reablement

Note: An increase or decrease in the reablement service should only be requested following a proportionate review or re-assessment. Reductions should only be made when there is evidence that a reduced service will continue to be sufficient to enable to person to achieve their baseline level of independence.

All increases or decrease of reablement have to come via the single point of access team.

1. SPA OT/PT to do a re-assessment of person's needs;
2. Workflow to Brokerage to notify them of increase/decrease;
3. Brokerage to liaise with the provider regarding increase/decrease;
4. Brokerage to make necessary changes on mosaic;
5. Brokerage to inform SPA that increase/decrease has been applied.

Terminating reablement

All requests for terminating reablement must come via the single point of access team.

Reablement should be terminated when a review or re-assessment has established that the person has returned to their baseline level of independence or when they have been admitted/re-admitted into hospital for a period of a week or longer (with no estimated date of discharge).

1. SPA OT/PT to do a review of person's needs;
2. Workflow to brokerage to notify them of the date reablement needs to be terminated;
3. Brokerage to liaise with the provider regarding the date to terminate reablement;
4. Brokerage to make necessary changes on mosaic;
5. Brokerage to inform SPA that reablement has been terminated.