Advocacy 'safety net' and advice service for looked after children and care leavers

This tender seeks bids from a single supplier or consortia of suppliers to take on and improve an existing set of national advocacy services, which act as a 'safety net' to ensure that all looked after children and care leavers are able to access advocacy support when they need it. Local authorities have statutory responsibilities for providing advocacy support, and this service will only step in where this proves unsuccessful. The service is intended to signpost looked after children to local advocacy support and to help those who have been denied local advocacy to make representations and pursue complaints. It will be active in referring cases back to local authorities and progressing these until satisfaction. The service will also improve insight and analysis about callers and the issues they raise, and will gather evidence about the quality and coverage of local advocacy services.

Additional information: This procurement will be managed through an e-procurement system named REDIMO2. To participate in this procurement you will need to register on REDIMO2 (If you are not already). Please register at https://supplierlive.proactisp2p.com/Account/Login/?cid=DFE Please e-mail our helpdesk commercial.admin@education.gov.uk if you have any queries with registering your details on REDIMO2. All Tender documentation will be made available from REDIMO and bidders should ensure that they have read all documentation prior to submitting a response.

The estimated maximum value of the contract is £825000 over the contract term, with an additional £600000 for an optional two-year extension period (£1.425m in total). Contract period is 01/07/2017 to 31/03/2020 with the option to break or extend the contract, subject to appropriate departmental internal approvals, until 31/03/2022.

Following evaluation, we may invite bidders for interview on 17 and 18 May 2017. Once the contract is awarded, there will be a transition period of one month from 31 May to 30 June 2017 to allow time for set up any TUPE transfer.