Soft Market Test for School Admissions Choice Advice Service (CAS)

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION

Leicester City Council is considering commissioning a School Admissions Choice Advice Service (CAS). This will be to provide information and advice to families and carers. Historically this service has been commissioned alongside our Special Educational Needs & Disability Information Advice Support Service SENDIASS, and the contract is now due for retender. The CAS service is a non-statutory area which will now be looked at independently. There will be a decision to either bring this service in house, maintain the service, or end this service.

The key aim of this service is for vulnerable families to be supported with making an informed application for a place at a mainstream school and / or with being represented at an admission appeal. Commissioners are keen to understand the market interest in providing a service that will be able to make an application for a mainstream school on the parents / carers behalf along with providing families with easy-to-understand information on schools in the area, the likelihood of gaining a place, the admission process and their right of appeal.

As part of the decision-making process, the authority is undertaking a soft market test. This gives potential providers and other stakeholders the opportunity to express their interests and feed in their views about the potential service model and specification principles. The commissioners will use the information to appraise options and further develop the potential specification.

This process does not constitute a formal tender or other competitive bidding process and will not result in the letting of a Contract. The authority is using this process solely to test the market to gather information and ascertain the level of interest in this particular service. There are therefore no formal criteria which we will use to judge your responses, and it is not our intention to provide any feedback.