560000.00

Concepts

• technical support
• department for educations intention
• national advocacy helpline and "safety net' service
• safety net' service
• local advocacy support
• helpdesk and support
• improved national advocacy 'safety net
• behalf of the department
• educations intention
• local authorities

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

It is the Department for Educations intention to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint a suitably experienced organisation to deliver on behalf of the department a 2 year and 0 month contract from 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2025 to deliver an Advocacy ‘Safety Net’ Helpline Service offering advice to looked after children and care leavers. The National Advocacy Helpline and "safety net' service will offer advice to looked after children and care leavers. The services are intended to signpost looked after children to local advocacy support or help those who have been denied local advocacy to make representations and pursue complaints. The service will be active in referring cases back to local authorities and progressing these until satisfaction. The service will continue to encourage local authorities to provide advocacy services in line with their statutory responsibilities, only stepping in where this proves unsuccessful. It is expected the improved national advocacy 'safety net' will also improve insight and analysis about callers to the service and the issues they raise and will gather evidence about the quality and coverage of local advocacy services. The service will use clear approaches for prioritising limited resources and engage looked after children who might otherwise be difficult to reach.

Total Quantity or Scope

Scope of the service The advocacy helpline and 'safety net' service will address the following objectives: a) To provide a national (England) advocacy advice helpline and website to signpost children to local advocacy. b) To provide direct advocacy support where advocacy is denied locally to looked after children or care leavers as well as supporting a looked after child or care leaver to pursue a complaint, likely in partnership with an Independent Reviewing Officer (unless concerns centre on the IRO service itself). c) To collect and maintain information about the range and availability of advocacy support provided to local children and young people based on calls to the service, contact with Local Authorities and through networks. Through this knowledge, the service will be able to support swiftly and effectively looked after children to obtain advocacy. d) To raise concerns, immediately, where there is a risk to a child's safety or welfare by referring to a local authority's child protection and safeguarding teams (and the police as appropriate). e) Where there are persistent concerns about the availability or quality of local advocacy services in a particular area, Ofsted should be informed, and reports made to the Department for Education as part of regular progress and monitoring arrangements. Quarterly information around safeguarding referrals is also to be shared with Ofsted. Where a serious safeguarding incident occurs, Ofsted would need to be informed immediately.

Renewal Options

Option to extend contract service for 1 year only for the period 01/10/25-30/09/26

CPV Codes

• 71356300 - Technical support services
• 72253000 - Helpdesk and support services

Indicators

• This is a one-off contract (no recurrence)
• Renewals are available.

Other Information

To view the tender, you will need to be registered as a supplier on the DfE Jaggaer eTendering portal, available at https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html The closing date for submitting your tender is 12:00 noon GMT on the 23rd March 2023. Once registered the Tender will be accessible via the ‘View Opportunities’ link on the Homepage. Select the Opportunity Notice for ‘Advocacy Helpline and 'Safety Net' Service ITT’ (ITT 2083) and this will take you directly to the tender documents. Please use the Jaggaer e-procurement system https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html to submit any questions you may have about the tendering procedure. ** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. **