Selnet Partnership Opportunity: Emotional Wellbeing Support for Building Better Opportunities Projects for Lancashire (Phase 3) NLCF & ESF funded

Selnet Ltd is the Social Enterprise Network for Lancashire and for over 15 years Selnet has supported social enterprises across Lancashire. In 2015/16 the organisation led a 12-month process to develop three Lancashire-wide partnerships to provide specialist employability and skills support to disadvantaged people. Our partnerships consists of approximately 30 diverse delivery partners from the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors, coming together to deliver specialist support for key groups across Lancashire. Selnet is the lead partner and does not undertake any delivery or direct support to participants.

Building Better Opportunities (BBO) is a national programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) and the European Social Fund (ESF) to invest in local projects tackling the root causes of poverty, promoting social inclusion and driving local jobs and growth. Selnet is Lead Partner on three Building Better Opportunities projects; Age of Opportunity and Invest in Youth have been operational since 1st August 2016 and Changing Futures since 1st February 2017. BBO Lancashire projects have recently received additional investment extending the project to 2023.

Over the lifetime of the project, over 5600 disadvantaged people will benefit from support tailored to their individual needs and interests to overcome complex barriers and move towards work and training.

Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced organisations to provide specialist wellbeing support. In early delivery of our projects it became evident that a significant proportion of BBO participants were experiencing mild to moderate mental health conditions, some diagnosed and some not. These mental health concerns can act as a barrier to progression of the individual into work or education. To this end, we procured the services of an Emotional Wellbeing provider in 2018 and again in 2019, and the same provider has been supporting BBO participants since. In light of extension of all three BBO projects to 2023, we would like to continue to offer a form of emotional wellbeing support to our participants.

Proposals are sought from organisations that can help increase the scope and variety of services that our projects can offer to participants, helping to build confidence and personal skills needed to move towards positive outcomes. Our delivery teams have highlighted the need for a responsive service to help manage low level mental health concerns in participants whilst they engage with one of our projects. It is anticipated that people with severe or chronic mental health conditions will need to be referred to existing specialist health services outside of these projects.

Please register an interest in this opportunity on the Proactis portal (link included on this page) to gain access to the full suite of tender documentation/instructions.