A Countywide Integrated Short Breaks Service for Disabled Children and Young People aged 0-19 years

Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) is tendering on behalf of BCC and Buckinghamshire CCG for the provision of a jointly commissioned Countywide Integrated Short Breaks Service for Disabled Children and Young People aged 0 - 19 years.

This will include provision of short breaks services across the targeted and specialist delivery levels, with the specialist service delivery including a residential short breaks service. The service will support Buckinghamshire County Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group to meet statutory duties in regards to short breaks.

The Provider will be supporting our transformation of short breaks across Buckinghamshire by supporting more disabled children and young people to access universal service provision, targeting resources to those most in need and supporting the commissioners to reduce current reliance on buildings based residential short breaks. There are 3 Local Authority owned buildings that will be leased to the provider to support the delivery of the service, two of which will be specifically for the delivery of residential short breaks.

We are seeking a lead provider model where we would encourage the provider to work with a range of small voluntary organisations/specialist providers to deliver the targeted service and to ensure we can meet one of our key objectives: Increasing Flexibility, Choice and Control through the Targeted Offer.

The provider will develop an assessment tool to support access to universal and the targeted service and develop a robust management of the allocation of the targeted service.

The provider will support the commissioners in the development of personal budgets for short breaks as part of a wider programme to establish Personal Budgets in Buckinghamshire.

The service will also provide a child specific training service for short breaks for both their own provision and other short breaks providers in county.

The current targeted and residential short breaks provision is contracted to an external provider which is due to expire and therefore TUPE may apply.

The contract start date is 1 October 2019. The contract term is 5 years and 6 months with the option to extend for up to a further 24 months.

A budget cap has been set at £15,898,737.00 for the initial contract term (5 years and 6 months).

If your organisation wishes to participate in this process, please register on Buckinghamshire Business Portal and express and interest in this opportunity. You will be unable to take part of you do not register on the Portal and express an interest in the opportunity. Link to the Portal http://www.supplybucksbusiness.org.uk Tenders must be returned via Buckinghamshire Business Portal. The tender return deadline is noon 8 May 2019.