Placement Portal Replacement - Soft Market Sounding Exercise

Birmingham City Council (BCC) is working with West Midlands Childrens Services (a collaborative of 14 Local Authorities and Children's Trusts) to undertake Soft Market testing for a web-based IT solution that enables brokerage of services and placements searches across a number of frameworks. The existing system is due to expire in 2021 and we are interested to learn about innovative ideas and solutions as an enhancement on the current system. This soft market sounding may be of interest to suppliers of relevant IT products and services. For those potential suppliers of IT products and services, this soft market sounding is an opportunity to: • Inform the council of relevant products and services in a way that can be easily used and implemented on a regional basis by Children's commissioners, placements teams and providers. • Use the feedback from the market to shape the procurement scope and approach. For Birmingham City Council, the purpose of this soft market sounding is to: • Give the market an understanding of the Region's needs for a web-based platform to undertake brokerage of services and placements searches, on the basis of enhancing our experience of the current system. • Share the region's current thinking on trade-offs between scope, capability, and affordability that need to be made before decisions on the next steps are made. • Find out current market interest in providing relevant products and services to the council and wider regional partners • Find out what solutions are available and whether they need developing or are ready to implement, and within what timeframe. • Find out delivery and market options, including potential cost and cost structures. • Find out the experience the market has in delivering similar services at similar-sized organisations. • Gain insight from the market when considering how best to deliver the service. Please read the document and if you feel that your organisation is able to contribute to this soft market sounding exercise please complete the requirements questionnaire, along with a solution overview and itemised price list and submit it via the In-Tend portal https://in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc by 5:00pm on the 15th January 2021. Registration on In-Tend is free. The system is secure and access to the clarifications will only be made available to those employees of the Council, and/or their authorised advisers in respect of this soft market sounding request. If you are unable to register with In-Tend please either email us at [email protected] or call 0121 464 8000. If you are interested in responding please click on the following link to access the Council's portal: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/birminghamcc/ and submit your details to register your interest. We will send you a username and password so you can download the documentation. Please note that this is not a call for competition.