DoJ - Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) NI

Concepts

• belfast
• research and development
• childhood trauma
• doj corporate plan
• adverse childhood experiences
• prevalent
• doj
• aces
• adverse
• prevalence

Location

BELFAST

Description

The Department of Justice (DoJ) coordinates the Tackling Paramilitary Activity, Criminality and Organised Crime Programme which is the Executive’s response to its commitment made under the Fresh Start agreement of November 2015 and the New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) document of 2020. It is reflected in the Programme for Government / Outcomes Delivery Plan and DoJ Corporate Plan for 2022-25. The Tackling Paramilitary Activity, Criminality, and Organised Crime Programme is a collaborative, Executive-wide approach which has the outcome of ‘safer communities, resilient to paramilitarism, criminality and coercive control’. It was initially established in 2016 as a result of the Fresh Start Agreement as a means of implementing the Independent Panel’s Report on the Disbandment of Paramilitary Groups. So far, Programme data confirms the findings of other studies that point to significant levels of trauma in communities where paramilitary activity is prevalent, and among those who are receiving or seeking support from the Programme. For that reason, the Programme is seeking to be trauma informed in all that it does; this means giving due consideration to the impact that trauma has on victims of paramilitarism, as well as those who help and support them. To support this goal, and to better understand need to improve service delivery, the Programme seeks to understand the prevalence of trauma, with the target of establishing a comprehensive baseline of levels of adverse childhood experiences (ACES), childhood trauma and exposure to violence in Northern Ireland. To do so, the Programme wishes to engage a contractor to complete an action research requirement to generate data and produce an associated research report to evidence the prevalence of ACEs, childhood trauma and exposure to violence in Northern Ireland.

Award Detail

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 73200000 - Research and development consultancy services
• 73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services

Indicators

• Award on basis of price.

Legal Justification

The Open Procedure was used for this procurement exercise. It was advertised for 35 days. The opportunity was published on 25 September 2023 and the deadline for receipt was 30 October 2023.

Other Information

Please note that information relating to contractors engaged by the Northern Ireland Department of Justice, and associated bodies is not published in any publicly accessible forum or publication. This is to protect such contractors, whose security and safety could be threatened by dissident terrorist organisations still active in Northern Ireland if their details became known. This is consistent with Regulation 50(6)(a). CPD nor the Department of Justice can provide any guarantee as to the level of business under this contract. The estimates are not deemed to be a condition of contract nor a guarantee of minimum demand or uptake. No compensation will be payable to a contractor should the actual demand be less than that stated. Contract monitoring: the successful Contractor's performance on the contract will be regularly monitored. Contractors not delivering on contract requirements is a serious matter. It means the public purse is not getting what it is paying for. If a Contractor fails to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance they will be given a specified time to improve. If, after the specified time, they still fail to reach satisfactory levels of contract performance, the matter will be escalated to senior management in CPD for further action. If this occurs and their performance still does not improve to satisfactory levels within the specified period, it may be regarded as an act. of grave professional misconduct and they may be issued with a notice of written warning and notice of unsatisfactory performance, and this contract may be terminated. The issue of a notice of written warning and notice of unsatisfactory performance will result in the Contractor being excluded from all procurement competitions being undertaken by Centres of Procurement Expertise on behalf of bodies covered by the Northern Ireland Procurement Policy for a period of up to 3 years from the date of issue of the notice.