Hackney Empowering Parent, Empowering Communities (EPEC) Service - Expression of Interest

The London Borough of Hackney wishes to procure a suitably qualified provider to establish and maintain an Empowering Parents Empowering Communities (EPEC) Hackney service.

The service will recruit and provide accredited training to a network of Parent Group Leaders (volunteers) who will deliver 8 - week EPEC parenting programmes to families with children aged 2 yrs and under.

EPEC is innovative. It uses a 'parent to parent' approach to transform the scale and reach of parenting support available to families and communities living in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods; and strengthens the parent-child relationship through positive communication, parental sensitivity, safe care, child-led play, alongside behaviour management tools grounded in social learning theory. It has been proven to reduce barriers associated with stigma for those parents/carers least likely to use conventional parenting services.

The Hackney service will work collaboratively with maternity, health visiting services, the CVS, children centres and emerging family hubs to be part of a whole system approach to supporting families with the transition to parenthood.

The successful bidder will:

establish a Hackney EPEC service

manage the recruitment and coordination of accredited training for local parent group leaders organise the programme of Hackney EPEC parenting courses

conduct parent outreach and engagement

provide supervision and quality assurance

network and liaise with multi agency colleagues and services

report EPEC activity and impact to multi agency partners

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust hold the intellectual property rights to EPEC and will support the organisation awarded the contract to successfully establish the local EPEC service within Hackney by:

delivering the accredited EPEC training to Parent Peer Group Leaders and materials

providing supervision - pre group, prep arrangements?

supporting training delivery to parents - observation for one hour, sessions 1, 3, 5 and 8, supervision?, and undertaking phone check-ins providing opportunities to reflect and learn on own group leader skills, and any concerns about specific parents

embedding safeguarding within the Parent Peer Group Leader training, local training, and group agreement

It is anticipated that this service will cost £119,000 (Yr. 1 £82,897.50 Yr. 2 £36,102.50).

Estimated contract dates - Start date: 27th November 2025 End date: March 2025. Note: the contract will include a 6 month extension to September 2025 (subject to funding) bringing the cost to a maximum of £163,000

To be notified when the opportunity is published please register your interest on the London Tender Portal - project reference DN689666 Note that this advert is Without Prejudice to any future procurement opportunities with LB Hackney.

This is not a call for competition.