ASC0269 - Soft Market Testing - 1001 Critical Days Early Speech and Language Development

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION

Leicester City Council intends to commission a new service to support early speech and language development building upon the evidence base of the importance of the first 1001 critical days (from pre-birth to 2 years), and the recently launched Speech, Language and Communication (SLC) Strategy 2021-2025. https://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council/policies-plans-and-strategies/social-care-and-education/speech-language-and-communication-slc-strategy-2021-2025/

The contract value is estimated to be £140,000 in total over three years contract period, with the overarching aim of building confidence within families to develop ways to support their children's early language development.

There will be two lots to this service: Lot 1 will focus on supporting women with perinatal mental health needs (£50,000 in total over three years contract period); and Lot 2 will focus on supporting families where there is more than one language spoken at home, usually where English is not the primary language (£90,000 in total over three years contract period).

Potential providers may be interested in bidding for either Lot 1 or Lot 2 or both Lot 1 and Lot 2.

It is anticipated that tenders for the commissioning arrangement would be sought in January 2022 to enable new contract to begin from 1st July 2022.

Commissioners would like to undertake 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 service definitions. The commissioners will use the information to appraise options and further develop the specification.

To participate in this Soft Market Testing, organisations that may be interested, must complete a Soft Market Test questionnaire. The questionnaire can be found by copying and pasting the following web link into your web browser: https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=365a5ee7-5b36-ec11-810e-005056b64545&fromAdvertEvent=True

The completed questionnaire must be returned electronically by email before or no later than 14:00 hours on 23 November 2021 to the email address procurement-asc@leicester.gov.uk with the subject heading: Completed SMT Q - 1001'.