Provision of Children’s Rights Service

Tenders are invited for the supply of services in respect of the Children's Rights Service. The successful supplier will be responsible for providing this service, liaising closely with the Council’s Nominated Manager and Commissioning Manager.

The Children’s Rights service delivers some key statutory responsibilities for the Council as part of its Corporate Parenting duty, including a statutory duty to provide an advocacy service to its Looked After Children cohort. The services required will be:

• Advocacy Children in Care and care leavers, including disabled children and young people in receipt of short breaks as per regulation 48 (Care Planning Regs 2010)

• Independent Visitors to support Children in Care

• Independent Advocacy for child protection conferences and meetings in relation to young people who abuse others

Tenderers must be able to demonstrate a recent and proven track record of success in providing the range of service elements called for in the specification.

The outcomes for the Service are as below:

- all children in care who need one have access to an Independent Visitor, with priority given to vulnerable children and young people who have little or no contact with a family member and live more than 20 miles from Derby; - an improvement in the involvement of children and young people in child protection conferences & ACYP meetings and development of safeguarding plans which reflect the perspective of young people; - an increase in the number of young people supported to raise concerns about their placement and short break experience; using the information to inform service improvement and development; - dealing with complaints at an earlier stage to respond to issues promptly, supporting placement quality and stability;

The initial contract period is two years; the contract is estimated to commence 01 April 2017 and expire 31 March 2019. There will be the opportunity to extend by one further year subject to performance, funding and business needs.

There is a budget of around £82,000.00 per annum.

Please note, suppliers wishing to express interest and obtain the documentation, must do so by 5pm on 3rd November 2016. However, it is recommended that you express interest and obtain the documentation well before this time to allow sufficient time to prepare and submit a comprehensive response.

The deadline for returns is 10.00am on 4th November 2016.

Please go to https://www.eastmidstenders.org where you can express interest and obtain the documents. Please note we will only accept expressions of interest through the e-tendering system.