Market Engagement - Voluntary Infrastructure Service

Southend-on-Sea City Council will shortly be seeking tenders from suitably experienced providers for the provision of a Voluntary Infrastructure Service.

As part of a wider engagement and consultation, we are inviting stakeholders to a virtual market engagement event held on MS Teams to inform the service model and service specification for the provision of this service.

Southend-on-Sea is a vibrant city supported by its large and diverse voluntary, community, and faith sector. One of Southend City Council's means of ensuring this sector thrives is to support the core infrastructure that enables people, communities, and voluntary organisations to deliver what is needed. We are therefore seeking to procure a contract for the future infrastructure organisation for the city.

We want this contract to deliver the following:

• communities within the city that are resilient and thriving;
• a robust and thriving network of local voluntary and community organisations;
• support for people to volunteer and contribute back to the community.

The organisation will also have a role to be the voice of, support and grow the voluntary and community sector for the city at, a time when there is tightening of funding and increased costs due to the increased cost of living. It will enable the Council to build a good relationship with the voluntary and community who deliver services and support in Southend.

The event will open with a presentation to outline the service and talk through the upcoming tender opportunity.

Date: 26th September 2022

Time: 14:00 - 15:00

Venue: Microsoft Teams

Please e-mail procurementadvisors@southend.gov.uk to confirm your place, and a Teams meeting invite will then be sent to all attendees.