Invitation for Expressions of Interest Experience of Care support

Cornwall Council (CC) is inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) from a Specialist Provider wishing to deliver employment and skills support to Care Leavers who are residents of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and aged 16 years or over. Delivery will form part of the existing Cornwall and Isles of Scilly People Hub model; a single point of contact for residents seeking employment and/or skills support. Cornwall Council recognises that support is needed to help Care Leavers, who often face disproportionately higher or more complex barriers than other members of society. Therefore Cornwall Council sees the People Hub as an important opportunity to provide additional support.

As part of the UK Government's Levelling Up agenda, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly have been allocated £132million for local investment through the Shared Prosperity Fund. This includes a key investment plan related to People and Skills; to support residents of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly regardless of employment status. The People Hub team will provide direct delivery to those residents who need general support with employment and skills. The EoI process is in place to understand what your organisation could add and contribute to delivering support for Care Leavers. In this context, we wish to engage a selected Specialist Provider to deliver direct end to end Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) support to this specific disadvantaged group to attain new skills, find sustainable employment, and/or secure work placements and/or volunteering opportunities.

Any interested specialist provider must be able to show that they have the capability to deliver specific support to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly; since this will be a CC commissioned service. The local authority has a responsibility to show that where a resident lives should not negatively affect the ability to receive a consistently high quality local authority service. At its heart, CC wishes to provide a service which is equitable to all, but delivery strategies may differ between areas within the county and islands. CC is not seeking EoI's from specialist providers bidding on behalf of others (e.g. consortium). We wish to avoid a partnership within a partnership to preserve an efficient, clear service for partners and one which is equally unambiguous in its objectives and the provision promoted to stakeholders. CC expects organisations to submit EoI's for its own element of service delivery directly unless there is a very clear exceptional business case made.

CC is only interested in contracting with specialist providers that are offering to deliver innovative end to end services to specific client groups, which adds value to existing services. The People Hub team will be in place to provide more general support. Therefore this is not a process to recruit providers who are able to support any unemployed resident over 16 but one which can provide specialist services for specific client groups.