Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SEND IASS)

Portsmouth City Council ('the council') is inviting tenders from suitably qualified suppliers to provide a Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Information, Advice and Support service that will allow provide free, impartial advice on matters relating to SEND.

Through these services - children, young people and their families should feel supported on a range of issues including school exclusions; Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessments; supporting conversations with a school or local authority, and representation at SEND tribunals.

SEND Information, Advice and Support Services provide free, impartial, and confidential information, advice and support to disabled children and young people, and those with SEN from birth to 25, and their parents. They are statutory services and so therefore must be in place within each local authority.

As per the Children and Families Act 2014, it is the duty of each local authority to provide an information advice and support service which will support children, young people, and parents within the local area on subjects relating to a child or young person's educational needs or disabilities.

The contract will involve an initial term of two years with the potential to extend for a further three years in yearly increments (1+1+1) to a maximum term of five years, subject to the performance of the provider and at the option of the council.

The total value of the contract, for the initial 24-month period is £160,000 (£80,000 per annum). If the extension opportunities are completely utilised, the contract value could increase to IRO £347,500 with an upper estimation of £350,000 taking into account external factors, such as inflation.

The maximum available funding amount for this service after the initial contract period expires, is currently unknown, though it is acknowledged that the permanent minimum funding figure for this service will amount to £62,500 per annum, which will be inflated each year - therefore should any of the available extension opportunities be utilised, there is the possibility that the Contract could decrease in value to this amount or within this radius.

The services covered under the contract fall under the 'light touch regime'. The Council will execute this procurement process in general accordance with the Open Procedure as set out within the Public Contract Regulations (2015).

The deadline for submissions of this tender will be 24th November 2023 at 2pm.

Suppliers that would like to take part in this open tender, are invited to 'Express interest', upon which they will be given access to the relevant tender documents through this e-tendering system.

When the tender documents have been made available, involved providers will receive notification via email, and the relevant documents can be accessed from the 'My Tenders' area of this website by selecting the 'View Details' button of this project. ...

Additional information: Portsmouth City Council is currently in the process of seeking expressions of interest for the following project -Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SEND IASS).

The full details and ability to express an interest will be via our e-sourcing system Intend. This filepath will take you to the relevant area of Intend,

https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/Tenders/Current

Once on the page you can either scroll down or use the search function to find the relevant project.

Should you have any problems with the above link, please contact us on 023 9268 8235 or email: procurement@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : Yes