NEPO605 - Children's Advocacy, independent people for Children and Adult Complaints and Secure Reviews (P-007452 / C-012113) - OPENING 1

Newcastle City Council (''the Lead Authority'') acting as the lead authority on behalf of the North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) and its Member Authorities, has awarded a contract in respect of the procurement of this Flexible Procurement Agreement (Contract) for:

Lot 1 - Children's Advocacy, Lot 2 - NOT USED Lot 3 - Investigating Officers (Children and Adult Stage Two Complaints) Lot 4 - Independent Persons (Children and Adult Stage Two Complaints) Lot 5 - Independent Chairs for Stage Three Statutory Children's Social Care Complaints Lot 6 - Independent Panellists for Stage Three Statutory Children's Social Care Complaints Lot 7 - Independent Persons for Secure Accommodation Reviews

This Notice relates to Opening One of this Flexible Procurement Agreement (Contract). Responses are invited for Providers for Lots 3 - 7 only.

The North East regional governance arrangements have determined that this is a non-mandatory collaborative exercise, and as a result, Local Authorities can 'opt-in' to the six different elements of the solution, with some Local Authorities choosing to continue to purchase some of these services through other local arrangements.

The Participating Local Authorities 'opting in' to the initial phase of this solution are: 1. Darlington - all elements except Independent Visitors, 2. Durham - all elements except Children's Advocacy 3. Gateshead - all elements 4. Hartlepool - all elements except Independent Visitors 5. Middlesbrough - all elements except Independent Visitors, 6. Newcastle (Lead Authority) - all elements 7. North Tyneside - all elements except Independent Visitors, 8. Northumberland - all elements except Children's Advocacy 9. Redcar & Cleveland - all elements except Independent Visitors, 10. South Tyneside - all elements 11. Stockton - all elements except Independent Visitors, and 12. Sunderland - all elements

Local Authorities who have 'opted out' for any Lot at this initial period of the solution may 'opt-in' to use the solution during its term.

The agreement is available for use by all NEPO Members. A list of member organisations is available in the About section of the NEPO website at: www.nepo.org.

This agreement will also be made available to all current and future NEPO Associate Members. Current Associate Members are listed in the Associate Member section of the NEPO website at: www.nepo.org/associate-membership/list.

NEPO intends to make the resulting agreement available for use by all Contracting Authorities throughout all administrative regions of the UK (as defined by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015).

A complete list of permissible users is shown on the NEPO website below: https://www.nepo.org/associate-membership/permissible-users

Organisations wishing to access the NEPO agreement will be required to register as a NEPO Associate Member in the first instance.

Further information can be found at: www.nepo.org