Hackney Council is set to tender for children's occupational therapy (OT) services, with a contract valued at up to £4.7 million, aiming to improve outcomes for children and young people.
The Council's Cabinet Procurement and Insourcing Committee, meeting on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, approved the recommissioning of an Integrated Children's Occupational Therapy (ICOT) service through a competitive tender process. The core contract is valued at up to £4,766,122 over a maximum of five years.
This initiative aims to streamline service delivery, reduce duplication, and ensure efficient contract management. A preferred option is to jointly commission the service with the North East London Integrated Care Board (NEL ICB). This collaborative approach is expected to bring several benefits, including improved outcomes for children and young people, reduced service duplication, and a focus on the 'whole child'. It also promises efficiency and best value through shared management costs, 'bulk buying' power, and a single contract performance management approach, leading to streamlined processes for service management, budget setting, governance, and contract monitoring. However, a primary challenge identified is the potential for delays in NEL ICB's approval of pooled budgets and the joint commissioning decision.
These decisions align with the Council's SEND Strategy and the SEND reforms, aiming to improve outcomes for children and young people by ensuring timely and integrated access to essential therapeutic services. The new ICOT service will embed principles of early intervention and prevention, and a graduated response, ensuring Hackney's model for OT is proportionate to need. It will support Priority 2 ('Inclusive environments and belonging') and Priority 4 ('Waiting times and equitable access to support') of the Council's SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2026-2029, specifically the outcome 'fair and inclusive access to the right kinds of therapies and services, including for children under five and those without an EHCP.' It also aligns with the Council's Strategic Plan 2022-2026 and the Green Party 2026 manifesto's commitment to strengthening inclusive practice in schools.
The Integrated Children's Occupational Therapy (ICOT) service will cover the full range of OT for children and young people. This includes core Occupational Therapy services and the Experts at Hand (EAH) provision, which aims to strengthen the skills and capability of education and early years settings through expert advice and support from specialist professionals. The EAH model will be based on a multi-disciplinary team including Occupational Therapists operating in mainstream education settings.
The current provision for children's occupational therapy in Hackney involves two separate contracts with the Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) under different service areas (Disabled Children's Service and Virtual School). The NEL ICB also separately commissions OT services through a community services block contract with the same provider. Perceived shortcomings necessitating recommissioning include complex contractual arrangements that have challenged service delivery, budget setting, governance, and contract monitoring, leading to duplication of efforts for commissioners and the provider. Challenges in monitoring outcomes for children and young people due to separate contractual arrangements have also made it difficult to attribute outcomes to specific funding sources. The recommissioning offers the potential to secure additional value through service integration and a longer-term contract via a competitive tender process.
The competitive tender process for the ICOT service is scheduled as follows: a Business Case Report to CPIC on 06 July 2026, followed by a Prior Information Notice (PIN) on 07 July 2026. The Tender Notice and documents will be published on 03 August 2026, with tender returns due by 06 September 2026. Final tender assessment is planned for 21 September 2026, with a Contract Award Report to CPIC on 02 November 2026 and the publication of the Contract Award Notice on 03 November 2026. The standstill period is expected to expire on 16 November 2026, followed by a mobilisation period from December 2026 to March 2027, with the contract commencing on 01 April 2027.
The key performance indicators (KPIs) for the ICOT service will focus on several areas. These include service overview metrics such as the total number of children and young people referred, receiving interventions, and cases closed; source of referrals; and waiting times between referral and intervention start. For each of the four levels of intervention (universal, targeted, targeted plus, and specialist), KPIs will track the number of children and young people receiving interventions, the type of interventions delivered, pathways, the number of interventions with parents/carers/professionals, and the number of multidisciplinary meetings attended. Additionally, KPIs related to children and young people with EHCPs or Individual Support Plans (ISPs) will monitor the number of children with EHCPs/ISPs, the number of quantified OT EHCP hours, and the number of EHCNAs for OT completed. These KPIs are detailed in the Public reports pack Wednesday 15 July 2026 Cabinet Procurement and Insourcing Committee.
Further details on the committee's decisions can be found in the Decisions Wednesday 15 July 2026 Cabinet Procurement and Insourcing Committee document.