The Provision of Residential Placements for Children and Young People with Complex Needs and Behaviours

Concepts

• social work
• coventry
• coventry children's services
• young people
• vulnerable children
• provision of residential placements
• children
• children's homes
• right placement
• coventry city council

Location

Coventry:

Description

Coventry City Council has a statutory duty to provide accommodation to young people and children under 18 who have been assessed as requiring accommodation under the Children Act 1989. Children's homes provide support and care for some of our most vulnerable children and young people. We want each child in care to be provided with the right placement at the right time, and for residential childcare to be a positive and beneficial choice for the children and young people living in children's homes. On average, Coventry currently has an average of 79 Looked After Children in residential provision per year. Of this cohort, 10-15% of the children have presenting needs that make them hard to source placements for. The children within this cohort are hard to place for a number of reasons including increased aggression, gang affiliation, risk of CSE, and multi placement breakdowns. The majority of children are male aged between 14-16 years and have experienced a number of placement breakdown in some cases in excess of three placements per year. Coventry Children's Services are implementing Family Valued, relational-based practice in all the work that we do. For Commissioning this extends to the relationship-based approach we want to build with our providers, moving away from traditional transactional procurement. Therefore, we want to secure a small number of providers to work in partnership with us to provide a minimum of 8 and up to approximately 15 residential placements per year, in which we can place some of our most vulnerable children and young people - those with complex needs and difficult behaviours. This will be a flexible framework to allow us to reopen the framework each year (or as required) to secure additional providers who can commit to supplying the required number of places between them each year.

Total Quantity or Scope

Providers are deemed to understand fully the processes that the Council is required to follow under relevant European and UK legislation, particularly in relation to The Public Contracts Regulations 2015. This procurement is for Social Care Services which are considered Light Touch Regime (LTR) services under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, as specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations ("Regulations"). Accordingly, the Council is only bound by those parts of the Regulations detailed in Chapter 3 'Particular Procurement Regimes Section 7, Social and Other Specific Services' 74 to 76 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Council is not voluntarily following any other part of the Regulations. The procedure that the Council is following is set out within this ITT. The Local Authority will create a "pseudo framework agreement" (based on CCS guidance) and have set out clearly how we intend to operate the framework agreement from the outset through the FAT notice, Tender Document, and Schedules, which also details the timeline for when it will be reopened. This meets the duty of transparency and equal treatment, which are the main guidelines to follow when setting up an LTR procurement. Each Call-off from the framework would be for the delivery of a residential placement. All parties participating in this tender exercise including those preferred bidders awarded a place on the framework should at all times note that the Council provides no guarantee (express or implied) as to the minimum level of work offered to framework partners pursuant to the framework. The project aim is to have sustainable providers with the requisite sufficiency to support the framework, and deliver quality, choice, and market viability. The intention is to re-open the framework annually. If, however during the Framework Agreement Term, a provider is removed or withdraws from the framework; other external Providers, including those that have previously applied and/or failed to become a Framework Provider, will be given a further opportunity to obtain a place on this Framework Agreement. The Council will advertise this opportunity as and when required and will place the advertisements on the Find a Tender Service www.findatenderservice.co.uk and the Council's E-tendering portal www.csw-jets.co.uk. If a Provider fails to be admitted onto the Framework, they may reapply for re-consideration during the designated Framework reopening term(s) to demonstrate that framework requirements can be met. At the point of annual or bespoke framework refresh, incumbent framework providers who are able to commit to and deliver the mandated minimum required two placements, need not reapply. Additional information: Initial Framework Duration: 01 January 2023 - 31 December 2025

CPV Codes

• 85300000 - Social work and related services

Legal Justification

Due to the nature of the services to enable stability for vulnerable young people and to give a longer period for return on investment.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** The Council is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (the Information Acts) and all correspondence received from Bidders may be subject to disclosure in accordance with the Information Acts. If any tenderer considers that any of the the information it submits to the Council is exempt from disclosure under the Information Acts then this should be stated in writing at the time the information is supplied together with the reason for considering it exempt. On receipt of an information request relating to the information considered exempt, the Council will, where reasonably practicable, consult with the relevant tenderer in considering any request for disclosure before disclosing such information. However, in submitting any information to the Councils Bidders accept and acknowledge that the Council may, acting in accordance with the Information Acts and associated codes of practice, disclose information: (a) without consulting the relevant tenderer; or (b) following consultation with the tenderer and having taken its views into account