Hillingdon Council Cabinet Member and Officer Decisions
Hospital Discharge Support Services
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Executive Decision Notice – 11 July 2025
This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk
OFFICIAL EXECUTIVE DECISION NOTICE
PUBLISHED BY DEMOCRATIC SERVICES
Notice is hereby given that the following decision(s) have been made today by
Cabinet Members at the London Borough of Hillingdon:
Title of decision HOSPITAL DISCHARGE SUPPORT SERVICES
Reference No. 1470
Date of decision Friday 11 July 2025
Call-in expiry date Friday 18 July 2025
Relevant Select
Committee
Health and Social Care Committee
Relevant Wards All
Decision made
Cabinet Members
making the decision
Councillor Ian Edwards, Leader of the Council
Councillor Jane Palmer, Cabinet Member for Health and Social
Care
Decision Approved
The Leader of the Council, in conjunction with the
Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care:
1. Gave
retrospective approval to a variation of
the Lot 1: Homecare and Outreach – North, Extra
Care Services – Park View Court and Grassy Meadow
Court and Specialist Support Services – Borough-
wide contract between the London Borough of
Hillingdon and CCS Homec are Services Limited to:
a) Increase
the capacity for the Bridging Care
and Reablement Services for the period 23rd October
2024 to 31st March 2025 at a total cost of £178,147.
b) Include the provision of an extra care step -
down coordinator post for the period 2nd December
2024 to 2nd May 2025 at a cost of £51,522.
2. Approved
a further variation of the Lot 1:
Homecare and Outreach – North, Extra Care Services
– Park View Court and Grassy Meadow Court and
Specialist Support Services – Borough-wide contract
between the London Borough of Hillingdon and CCS
Homecare Services Limit ed to:
Executive Decision Notice – 11 July 2025
This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk
a) Increase the capacity of the Bridging Care
and Reablement Services for the period 1st April
2025 to 31st March 2026 at a total cost of £362,604.
b) Delegate to the Corporate Director, Adult
Social Care and Health, in consultation with the
Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Health
and Social Care authority to increase capacity for the
Bridging Care and/or Reablement Services during
the winter pressure period, subject to the availability
of funds.
3. Accepted a single
tender from Bondcare
(London) Limited for the provision of up to four
nursing care home beds for step- down purposes as
they became available at a weekly rate of £1,250 per
week from 17th March 2025 to 4th June 2027 at a total
cost of £565,349.
4. Approved
variations to contracts with Halton
Services Limited (Parkfield House Nursing Home),
GCH (North London) Ltd (Drayton Village Care
Centre) and Bondcare (London) Limited (Ashwood
Care Centre) to secure up to six additional nursing
care home beds for step -down purposes as they
became available at a weekly rate of £1,300 for the
period 3rd November 2025 to 31st March 2026 at a
maximum cost of £166,029. This was subject to the
availability of funding.
Reason for decision 1. Bridging Care and Reablement Service s capacity
2024/25: The additional capacity for the Bridging Care and
Reablement Services assisted in expediting hospital
discharge during the winter demand surge period.
2. Extra care step -down coordinator : Employed by CCS
Homecare Services , this post coordinated access to the
four step-down flats at Grassy Meadow Court , which
supported early discharge from hospital as an alternative
to care home placements and thereby reduced demand on
local care home bed capacity. Key tasks undertaken by the
postholder included reviewing referrals, managing the staff
rota for care workers allocated to the step- down flats ,
liaising with the Extra Care Housing Manager and Extra
Care Social Worker and being on- call to address queries
or issues faced by care staff in respect of residents of the
step-down flats.
3. The funding to support recommendation 1 comes from the
£934,446 that the Council received in 2024/25 from the
Northwest London Integrated Care Board (ICB)’s
Executive Decision Notice – 11 July 2025
This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk
Discharge Fund allocation to the Hillingdon Health and
Wellbeing Board. The approval request for these services
was not reflected in the Winter Hospital Discharge Support
Schemes report that the Leader and Cabinet Member
approved on 20th February 2025 as there was uncertainty
about how much additional capacity would be required and
for how long . This is within the context of an increased
number of referrals from the community. The 2024/25
funding has been carried forward into 2025/26 to meet
these commitments.
4. Bridging Care and Reablement Services capacity
2025/26: If agreed the recommendation will maintain an
additional 50 hours a week for the Bridging Care Service
for the whole of 2025/26 and an additional 250 hours a
week for the Reablement Service for the period 1
st April to
31st May 2025 and 200 hours a week from 1 st June 2025
to 31st March 2026. The funding for this additional capacity
is contained within the 2025/26 B etter Care Fund (BCF)
plan and explained later in this report.
5. Block contract: The Council currently has a block contract
in place with Halton Services Limited for the provision of
ten nursing beds at Parkfield House Nursing Home. The
recommendation would result in four beds transferring to
Ashwood Care Centre leaving
five beds at Parkfield to
support people who are non- weight bearing. The total
number of block beds has been reduced by one due to a
reduction in ICB funding for the 2025/26 BCF. The funding
for this provision is contained within the 2025/26 Better
Care Fund (BCF) plan and explained later in this report.
6. If approved, the recommendation will mean that the
Council has three block contracts for step- down beds
spread across three separate providers, i.e., Bond Care
Limited, GCH (North London) Limited and Halton Services
Limited with aligned end dates. This is a component of the
Council’s risk management response to the recent
assessment by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of
Parkfield House as ‘requires improvement’. It also creates
greater flexibility for the Council pending implementation of
its plan for alternative provision at The Burroughs . The
Leader and Cabinet Member are also
reminded that
Standing Orders require that all Council contracts contain
a three- month no fault
break clause that maximises
flexibility to respond to changed circumstances. This
means that if it is possible to establish step- down nursing
capacity at The Burroughs earlier than June 2027 the
Council would be able to end the block contracts early.
Executive Decision Notice – 11 July 2025
This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk
7. Additional winter bed capacity: The recommendation
anticipates a need for additional capacity to support
increased seasonal demand on hospital beds and is part
of Hillingdon ’s health and care system’s winter planning
process. Mobilisation of the beds would be subject to the
availability of funds via the discharge funding aspect of the
ICB’s minimum contribution to the Better Care Fund (BCF),
or equivalent. In short, the additional beds would not be
procured if the funds were not available.
Alternative options
considered and
rejected
8. Bridging and Reablement capacity 2024/25: The short-
term nature of the service provision to which the
recommendation appl ies means that officers have not
considered alternative options. The same also applies to
the extra care step-down coordinator post.
9. Bridging Care and Reablement Services capacity
2025/26: The option not to approve the continuation of the
additional hours is available. As the services are operating
at an average of 91% and 95% utilisation respectively this
is not recommended.
10. Block contract: A competitive tender option was
considered but not pursued as route has been tried twice
before in 2022 and 2023 without success . The short-term
nature of the placements with step -down beds presents
additional burdens for providers, which means that there
are a limited number of organisations willing to deliver this
model. This means that a competitive tender is unlikely to
produce a different outcome to previous tenders.
11. Additional winter bed capacity: The decision could be
made not to
give advance approval to additional winter
capacity. This is not recommended as demands on the
health and care system in winter make it likely that
additional capacity will be required, and the
recommendation facilitates early planning and avoids late
decision requests.
12. A competitive tender could also be required but this is not
recommended for the reasons explained in paragraph 7
above. In addition, working with
existing providers with
whom the Council is already in contract for the provision of
step-down beds will expedite responsiveness to increased
demand in settings that have established relationships with
health and care partners.
Classification Part 2 - Members’ Only and Not for Publication
Executive Decision Notice – 11 July 2025
This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk
Link to associated
report
That this report be declared as exempt from publication as
it involves the disclosure of information in accordance with
Section 100(A) and paragraphs 1 & 2 of Part 1 of Schedule
12 (A) to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), in
that the report contains information relating to any
individual and information which is likely to reveal the
identity of an individual and that the public interest in
withholding the information outweighs the public interest
in disclosing it.
Relevant Officer
contact & Directorate
Gary Collier – Adult Social Care and Health
Any interest declared
by the Cabinet
Member(s) /
dispensation granted
N/A
Implementation of decision & scrutiny call-in
[Internal Use only]
When can this
decision be
implemented by
officers?
Officers can implement Cabinet Member decision in this notice only
from the expiry of the scrutiny call-in period which is:
5pm on Friday 18 July 2025
However, this is subject to the decision not being called in by
Councillors on the relevant Select Committee. Upon receipt of a
valid call-in request, Democratic Services will immediately advise
the relevant officer(s) and the decision must then be put on hold.
Councillor scrutiny
call-in of this
decision
Councillors on the relevant Select Committee shown in this notice
may request to call-in this decision. The request must be before the
expiry of the scrutiny call-in period above.
Councillors should use the Scrutiny Call-in App (link below) on their
devices to initiate any call-in request. Further advice can be sought
from Democratic Services if required:
Scrutiny Call-In - Power Apps (secure)
Executive Decision Notice – 11 July 2025
This notice is a public document also available to view on the Council's website www.hillingdon.gov.uk
Further information These decisions, where applicable, have been taken under The
Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access
to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.
This is the formal notice by the Council of the above executive
decision, including links to the reports where applicable.
If you would like more information on this decision, please contact
Democratic Services on 01895 250636 or email:
democratic@hillingdon.gov.uk.
Circulation of this decision notice is to a variety of people including
Members of the Council, Corporate Directors, Officers, Group
Secretariats and the Public. Copies are also placed on the
Council’s website.
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