CROYDON COMMENTARY: The collapse of a multi-million-pound contract to manage a children’s home in the borough has exposed the flaws in the procurement process and sunk Mayor Perry’s claims of running a ‘more efficient’ council.
Green Party councillor NATALIE VESTY, right, on why the arrangement went so seriously wrong
A £8.57million, seven-year contract for a children’s home was cancelled within six months of the home opening. So why did things go so wrong? The answer lies in the model: Croydon built a children’s home and handed someone else the keys.
Got it wrong again: a £8.7m council contract collapsed in just six months
The council-owned building is supposed to serve as a home for children with complex needs.
On March 13, Mayor Jason Perry announced its opening, a partnership between Croydon Council and St Christopher’s Fellowship, “a charity that helps create brighter futures for children and young people in care”.
The council said the agreement would provide “short- to medium-term support… helping children return to family life or move into local foster care… to avoid long-term stays in care”.
Mayor Perry called it part of becoming “a more cost-effective and efficient council”.
It appears that the council’s new children’s home has failed in every aspect of those claims.
It’s a seemingly modest light industrial site not far from Mitcham Common. Yet the cutting-edge materials produced at the Zotefoams factory are credited with helping deliver up to 20 running world records in the last decade, thanks to innovative “super shoes” made by US sportswear giant Nike.
The Labour opposition group at Croydon Town Hall has demanded that Mayor Jason Perry set up a “fast-track” and independent inquiry into how his council was forced to cancel a £8.6million contract with a care provider less than six months after the children’s home was opened.
St Christopher’s Fellowship strongly disputes a number of the assertions contained in Croydon Council’s report about our management of [home name], a care home offering short-term respite support for children and young people with complex needs.
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Croydon Council has served notice on a contract for managing a children’s home less than six months after it was opened, citing “concerns”, with children put “into situations that subsequently resulted in placement breakdowns and/or hospital admissions”.
