Council to spend £500,000 on eMarketPlace
30 August 2011 by Paul RhoadesThe council have today released a report detailing the potential for service users in North Lincolnshire to be given access to a "regional e-market place" allowing them to purchase their services on line.
The system, should it be approved by Cllr Rob Waltham (Cabinet member for Children and Adult Services) at the next cabinet meeting on the 6th September, will provide service users in North Lincolnshire with access to a joint scheme run in conjunction with other local authorities within the Yorkshire and Humber region.
The procurement process has been lead by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, who have settled on "Shop4Support", and has involved officers at North Lincolnshire council and representatives of service user groups.
The £500,000 cost of the system is being met by regional funding, so it will not cost North Lincolnshire tax payers anything to join.
The report highlights the potential risk of unscrupulous providers taking advantage of vulnerable adults, but also highlights a 4 point plan designed to combat abuse of the system and to help and assist vulnerable users where necessary:
- the need for ’Shop4Support’ to comply with all relevant legislation in relation to selling goods and services via the internet;
- the ongoing requirement for Adult Social Services staff to apply safeguarding practices in approving providers of care and support as part of assessment and support planning processes;
- the continued application of processes already in place to assure the quality of care and support services directly or indirectly commissioned by the council;
- the monitoring of activity and spend by council staff to ensure that personal budgets are being used for the persons benefit to provide appropriate support.
The report also goes on to say that the adoption of this system will not result in any additional staff being needed to operate the system, but does state "However, some existing staff roles may need to change slightly to incorporate the existence of the eMarketplace. Training will be provided to relevant staff to enable them to provide information and advice differently and to ensure the quality of the information and the providers accessed through the eMarketplace."
The report claims that creation the eMarketplace will provide a place for service users to spend their
personal budgets will mean less reliance on more costly directly provided and contracted services. However the report makes no reference to what these services will be, where they will be based or if the contracting of services from outside the North Lincolnshire Council area will have a knock on effect on staffing within the council its self.
It is expected that North Lincolnshire could join the program in early 2012.
A copy of the report is available in full from the council's web site
If you would like add your own news article to Visit Scunthorpe, Login or sign up, its free and easy and you can start publishing your own content here, straight away.
Comments
Hi Thoades
Just a quick query. I haven't had a chance to look at the full report yet but am intrigued by the reference that
"The £500,000 cost of the system is being met by regional funding, so it will not cost North Lincolnshire tax payers anything to join."
Surely "regional funding" comes from somewhere? Isn't regional funding from the public purse the same as any other government (local or central) funding. i.e. paid for from taxing the public? While it may not have specifically come from North Lincolnshire Council Tax it still from our indirect payments of income tax, VAT and everything else contributed by taxpayers within North Lincolnshire (and elsewhere).
The benefit of the eMarketplace I'm sure will be there given time and more explanation in the future but I think it is important that nothing paid for from the public purse is seen ascompletely "free" to us in this area just because it comes from a different pot of government money. Or perhaps I am missing something...
If you would like to leave a comment about this article, Login or sign up now
Please Note
Views expressed on this site are those of individual posters, who by making these posts indemnify Visit Scunthorpe and its operators of any legal responsibility or obligation.
Please respect the privacy of others, if someone gives you infomation that you use in your post, please don't identify them.
Visit Scunthorpe is North Lincolnshire's only truly independent, non commercial, community news web site.
Established in January 2010 we have lots of members with a wide range of views who all contribute
independently with articles of their own.
You won't find dozens of adverts covering our site, or some poor attempt to promote local business services under the guise of offering a community service.
Here on VisitScunthorpe we are interested in just one thing, building an online community which is representative of the people of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire and the surrounding area.
Paul. Founder Visit Scunthorpe.
How it Works
If you would like to have the ability to add articles and comments to Visit Scunthorpe then all you need to do is sign up with a valid email address for an account. This is free, your email address is confidential and we don't send out spam emails.
Once you've completed the sign up then you are free to post and comment on well... pretty much anything, we just have some basic civilised rules to prevent people from inciting violence, hatred or making individual attacks.
If you have a web site or directory which covers either independent news and blogging, or is related to North Lincolnshire or Scunthorpe then get in touch to set up a reciprocal link.
Reply Report