Progress: Building Better Opportunities for young people across Coventry & Warwickshire Employer Engagement and Employment Support

Groundwork UK is looking for a Specialist Partner or Partners to deliver employability support and employment/ work placement services to participants of BBO Progress across Warwickshire.

Proposals are sought from organisations with experience in engaging employers including sourcing job/ work placement opportunities, and providing employment support to young people aged between 15-24 who are facing significant barriers to engaging with education, employment and training. The varied and complex needs of young people will require an accessible, engaging, supportive approach. Support will ideally be provided in a combination of one-to-one and group settings, and will preferably be delivered in local, community settings across the county. Proposals are particularly welcome from organisations who are able to provide tailored support for young people with learning differences and physical disabilities, and who have experience supporting young people in rural areas.

Participants access Specialist Partner support via a referral from their Progress Coach. Whilst accessing specialist provision, the young person will also continue to receive support from their Progress Coach. Specialist Partners and Progress Coaches work together to track the progress of participants and ensure that they are taking the maximum benefit from the programme.

The successful tenderer will support other partners with their own employer engagement strategies, broker relationships with local employers across Warwickshire, and support a coordinated approach to Warwickshire employer engagement on behalf of the partnership. Ideally the partner(s) will be able to deliver across the whole county, but proposals from organisations delivering only in specific areas will be considered. In these circumstances the full budget may be distributed across a number of successful tenderers.

The approach to work placement and job brokerage activity should reflect the needs of the young people participating in the programme, with tailored opportunities identified to meet specific interest and needs. We envisage that this will require engagement with local, small employers to identify opportunities located in accessible location for young people.

Please note that all Building Better Opportunities activity must represent additional activity to any delivery paid for by other means.

Funding available: A total of £50,000 is available for the delivery of the above activity for young people across Warwickshire. This must provide the above support for a minimum of 55 young people.

Proposals will be considered and a tender / tenders awarded based on the merit of the submissions. Groundwork UK reserves the right to distribute the total funding between multiple organisations in order to obtain the best possible offer for programme beneficiaries.

Additional information: Procurement Process

1. With reference to the Scoring Matrix (Appendix C), please complete the following submit both documents below to [email protected] and [email protected] by 5pm on Monday 16th October 2017: a. Tender Submission (Appendix B) and b. Form of Tender (Appendix D) 2. Groundwork will assess and score tenders and respond to all tenderers by 5pm on Friday 20th October 2017. 3. The highest scoring tenderers may be invited to interview at Groundwork UK (Central Birmingham) on 25th or 26th October 2017. Please ensure suitable representatives are available on one of these dates. 4. The outcome of the process will be communicated by Friday 27th October 2017. 5. The successful tenderer(s) will be invited to meet with Groundwork UK week commencing 30th October 2017. 6. Delivery to commence on or before 6th November 2017.

Further Information

For further information or clarification please email [email protected] stating "BBO Partnership Tender" in the email subject line, or contact Sarah Duncan or Andy Harrison on 0121 236 8565. The final deadline for tender-related questions is midday, Wednesday 11th October 2017.