Buckinghamshire Missing Children and Independent Return Home Interview Service

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is a key duty on local authorities and requires effective joint working between agencies and professionals. Children running away and going missing from home or care is a safeguarding issue. Local authorities are responsible for protecting children whether they go missing from their family home or from local authority care and are required to work with partners on planning to prevent children from going missing and to protect them when they do Buckinghamshire Council is seeking tenders for the coordination and delivery of an Independent Return Home Interview service for Buckinghamshire children who go missing from home or care The service will support Buckinghamshire children and young people between the ages 10-18 years who have been reported missing.

• oand who live in Buckinghamshire,
• oor who are looked after by Buckinghamshire Council.

The overarching outcome for the Return Home Interview (RHI) service is to help safeguard vulnerable children and young people that have gone missing or run away from home or care. The service will use a trauma informed approach to deliver high quality and timely independent RHIs to understand the reasons why a child has gone missing, give children and young people information and advice and help them develop strategies to keep them safe

This statutory service will be commissioned in adherence with DfE Statutory Guidance titled: Guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care, January 2014:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/307867/Statutory_Guidance_-_Missing_from_care__3_.pdf

Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) may apply to this opportunity.

The contract start date will be 01/04/2022 for 3 years with the option to extend for a further 2 x 12 month. The annual budget is capped at £290,000. Any bids that exceed the cap will be disqualified from the procurement process.

If your organisation wishes to participate in this process, you need to register with the Buckinghamshire Business Portal. You will be unable to take part if you do not register. Please use the link below and follow the instructions on the website: www.supplybucksbusiness.org.uk

Tenders must be returned via the Buckinghamshire Business Portal.

The tender return date is midday on Friday 17th September 2021. Tenders received after this time and date will not be accepted.

A market engagement event will be held virtually via Teams on Wednesday 4th August 2021 at 12pm – 2pm. The purpose of this event is to provide an overview of the Council’s requirements and to answer any questions you may have about the requirement, the process or any of the tender documents. Please let us know through the messaging functionality on the portal who will be representing your organisation and their email addresses to enable us to send the meeting link.

We encourage bidders considering taking up the offer of the Council’s premises (The School House) to arrange a site visit. Site visits can take place between 2nd August and 20th August. The Council reserves the right to refuse any requests after this date. All requests must be made via the portal and should include your availability on the requested dates.