Decision details

Oldham Council, through Department for Education (DfE) Opportunity Area grant funding, have developed a bid to improve the early identification of special educational needs, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This project is called the Early identification of Need project and Oldham is one of three other areas to receive this additional funding.
Grant funding was confirmed by the DfE on 13 December 2021.
The overall ASD Diagnosis Support Service is delivered within scope of a contract with Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust who sub-contract an element of delivery to Parents of Oldham in Touch (POINT). This also supports Oldham’s coproduction and partnership principles. ASD primary need accounts for c.35% of the EHC plans maintained by Oldham Council, and continues to increase locally and nationally.
An additional grant of £30,000 has been identified for pre-diagnostic support work as part of the Early Identification of Need Project. It is proposed this is delivered by POINT under the arrangements outlined above as this would strengthen and extend the existing offer to Oldham families. The current offer in Oldham already exceeds the GM agreed minimum standards, and this opportunity would benefit Oldham families further.

Approved - Approval is sought to seek agreement from Pennine Care to vary their existing post diagnosis contract with POINT to include a prediagnostic element from January 2022 up until 31 August 2022 as part of the pilot project. This element will be delivered by POINT with a funding envelope of £30,000. Contract monitoring will be completed by Pennine Care following their existing arrangements.

Option One:
Approval is sought to seek agreement from Pennine Care to vary their existing post diagnosis contract with POINT to include a prediagnostic element from January 2022 up until 31 August 2022 as part of the pilot project. This element will be delivered by POINT with a funding envelope of £30,000.
Option Two:
A full procurement exercise is undertaken to appoint a provider for this element of Opportunity Area funding.
This option would not enable delivery of the service to be in place within the given time frames and therefore is not recommended.
Recommended Option is Option One.

Consulted with Finance, Procurement, Legal and HR colleagues. As part of the co-operative agenda going forward, working with VCSFE partners is a core element within Oldham’s co-production principles.