Last autumn, the Scottish Government made a tiny step towards telling local authorities that they should hesitate before they put support services for people with learning disabilities up for competitive tender. Local Authorities were told that they should carry out a Procurement Risk Assessment first. This is fancy words for saying ask the people who use the services and those that care for them what might happen if their services were put out for tender.

Always wanting to believe that councils might listen to advice, LDAS wrote to both East Ayrshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council asking them what they had found out in carrying out these Procurement Risk Assessments. East Ayrshire told us bluntly that they hadn't done one, or anything even similar. South Lanarkshire didn't even bother to reply!

Even where local authorities are committed to carrying out these risk assessments in areas such as Edinburgh. Little space is given to view of service user in the finished pace of work and even less thought has gone into how to satisfactorily seek their views.

The Welsh Assembly has taken a much more proactive approach looking at developing a national strategy on the commissioning of services for people with learning disabilities.

In England, the Care Services Improvement Partnership backs the use of a "Fair Pricing Tool" and the more widespread use of individual planning and support through "In Control". The Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships have just launched a Care Funding Calculator which allows for a negotiated price to be arrived at.

Only in Scotland do we have a blanket approach to tendering services.

Yet no research shows any benefit to the users of services, their carers or even local authorities through competitive tendering. 

Where services have changed there is no follow up to see what the effects have been on service users, 6 months, 1 year and so on down the line.

There is a real danger that Competitive Tendering will make things worse for service users as it freezes existing ways of providing care and stifles creativity with a fixed model of care and 5-7 year contracts

The Learning Disability Alliance Scotland and ARC Scotland have organised a conference to look at the alternatives to competitive tendering

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

THE FUTURE OF SERVICES IN SCOTLAND

PUTTING PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES AT THE CENTRE OF THE PLANNING PROCESS  OR PUTTING SERVICES OUT TO COMPETITIVE TENDER

TUESDAY 9TH September 2008
St Mungo Museum
2 Castle Street, Glasgow, 9.30am- 3pm

Download our flyer to book your place

A small number of subsidised places are available