Decision details

To allocate a grant of £130,000 to be spend over a period of three years in equal amounts of £43,333.33 to Age Uk Barnsley as the representing member organisation of the Alliance responsible to the Council.

The reasons for decision taken are that:-

·         There is no early help support service for people with dementia being provided at a borough-wide level in Barnsley other Memory Service for diagnosis and treatment. This is significantly compromising inequality in access to support early.

·         The impact of the pandemic on the dementia specific third sector organisations locally is such that the continuity of the range of support provision and indeed sustainability of the sector is at a risk. This will impact on people with dementia negatively and lead to intervention at crisis points by statutory services primarily Health and Adult Social Care teams.

·         Enabling the development of a dementia alliance locally will empower the sector to collaborate and maximise local expertise, knowledge and skill sets to reach out to more people which otherwise would not be realistic or economically viable by a single commissioned organisation alone.

The six dementia specific organisation members (forming the Alliance) and the Council’s Communities Directors Management team (DMT) have been consulted.

Approval has been given to support the sector to develop with a view to continue supporting people with dementia and extend it’s reach boroughwide. 

In addition, the ‘Stronger Communities Partnership’ board supported the pilot for the development of this approach to increase community resilience, innovative use of local asset and the adoption of a public health approach to promote wellbeing of communities.

Option to procure the delivery of dementia outcomes through a tendering process was considered with the Council’s procurement and legal colleague.

It concluded, that undertaking a procurement process to enable a higher level of collaboration between local charities to pool resources in respect of dementia support through a single commissioning of a service would not be realistic or economically advantageous to the Council or the taxpayer.

The proposed approach has been tested as part of the Demetia Gateway service pilot and the Alliance members are already developing the foundation to collaborate further with a view to build their offer further.

The grant agreement will ensure:-

a)    The local sector already engaged in supporting people with dementia can continue to provide support and develop longer term plans.

b)    Existing community assets, knowledge, skills and sector confidence will be maximised.

c)    New resources secured by the sector will be directed towards the individual customers.