Local Welfare Provision - Domestic Relief Furniture Packages

Government funding has been cut for the provision of local welfare support. Wigan Council needs to look at new ways of working and provision of supporting those in a crisis, in particular in the provision of furniture items. The Council is looking to provide a short term scheme to provide support to Wigan residents who are suffering extreme financial hardship.

We would like to identify a provider organisation to deliver and sustain a furniture service for crisis furniture referrals without the reliance of future funding. Delivering a service through this contract which seeks to minimise and which will seek to be not reliant on Council funding in the future will form part of the evaluation and scoring criteria of submissions.

The Council has set up a new model of operation to triage customers that require a furniture package. Vulnerable people or families who are identified as requiring emergency or immediate support needs whose needs cannot be met through working with our credit union partner will be referred by Wigan Council to the provider organisation under the proposed contract ‘Local Welfare Provision – Domestic Relief Furniture Packages’.

Applicants can obtain further information on this contract by referring to the Invitation to Tender documentation. This contains the full specification for this service and includes the person eligibility criteria for furniture under the Local Welfare Provision arrangements, the process for applying for domestic relief furniture, the referrals process and the furniture items which may be issued through this service.

The contract will run for an initial period of 12 months and allow for two further extensions of 6 months each.

The closing date for the submission of final tenders is Wednesday 19th August 2015 at 17:00.

Note that the contract value stated within this notice is an estimate only and the actual contract value will be dependent on a variety of factors.

Additional information: Wigan Council is using the e-procurement portal known as The Chest at https://www.the-chest.org.uk/ to conduct the procurement exercise. To gain access to the tender documents applicants will need to register their details at the following link https://www.thechest.nwce.gov.uk/procontract/supplier.nsf/frm_home?openForm. Once registered applicants will be e-mailed a log-in and password which will allow them to gain access to the tender documents.