Provision of a 24/7 Core Wellbeing Service with Potential for Planned Care and Support at the Laurels Extra Care Schemes, Armsley, Leeds

The aim of the Service Specification is to ensure the provision of high quality, outcome-focused services which are safe and that meet the quality outcomes and safeguarding responsibilities of the Council. This will involve working to achieve the agreed outcomes as defined by the Service User, through a person-centred planning approach that puts Service Users and their Carers at the forefront of all decision making. The services that this will be achieved through include a 24/7 care staffing presence to respond to unplanned care requests and help engage with the delivery of activities (referred to as the 24/7 Core Wellbeing Service) as well as through the delivery of Planned Care and Support as requested by the individuals residing in the apartments to which the Council holds Nomination RightsWhile City Development manage the building phase of the scheme, responsibility for securing an onsite care provider is managed by the Integrated Commissioning Team in the Adults and Health Directorate. This will be done to the core and add-on approach utilised at other commissioned extra care schemes. Under this approach, the service specification stipulates the nature of the service and the expectations of Leeds Adults & Health (Leeds A&H) in terms of delivery. The service specification does not offer any guaranteed hours, instead it states the potential opportunity for care hours from nominated tenants which would then be paid for through direct payments, managed budgets or from an individual’s own finances. The service to be procured consists of two components: an onsite, core service providing 24/7 cover to offer peace of mind, which includes responding to alarm calls, and; the provision of statutory planned care and support for those individuals who wish to purchase this service from the onsite provider, as opposed to any other care provider options. In terms of the community for the 65 apartments, the scheme will aim to be structured around the balanced community approach with a 40% high, 30% moderate and 30% low care split. The delivery of a 24/7 onsite staffing presence that is accessible to all tenants is available to all individuals living at the scheme regardless of assessed care needs and would in all cases be directly funded by individual tenants via a charge levied per apartment directly to the tenants by the procured care provider. This charge will not be part of the rent or the housing related service charge and is managed separate by the onsite care provider. The onsite provider will be recognised as the default provider for the add-on planned care and support. However, individual tenants will be able to choose their own care provider if they prefer this option. Including this default option approach should help to balance the costs across both elements of the service, for example by the provider having staff onsite during the day who could deliver add-on care as well as respond to emergency calls. While identifying the onsite provider as the default option, individuals’ choice and control is still recognised and the specification will highlight that there is no guarantee of any of the estimated 457.5 hours of planned care and support.