Soft Market Test for Domestic Abuse skilled staff based within Together for Families Children's social care

Cornwall Council are looking to commission a small, dedicated team of highly skilled domestic abuse workers, who can provide both insight and direct case work support within children's social care. The dedicated team will support Cornwall Council to increase knowledge and skills across the social care teams and provide direct case work for families where the primary issue is domestic abuse.

This dedicated team will provide the intensive support that some families need to assess their situation with them and provide the support they need. The dedicated team will support those in Family Assessment (FAS) teams but also on occasions child protection and children in care where TFF have high level concerns about domestic abuse.

The proposal is for two workers in each area in Cornwall (East, Mid and West), 6 workers in total who will need to undertake highly targeted work to get the best outcomes from the resource available. This will include a countywide supervisor who will ensure the fidelity of the service and that the workers are clear in the work they are undertaking.

The team will be fully embedded within the FAS teams to ensure clarity of responsibilities, joint case supervision and integrated provision so that families move seamlessly through support services.

This team will need to work with statutory partners, Education, Health and Social Care, Police and voluntary sector partners. The service lead will be responsible for the liaison and development work with partner organisations.

It is intended that the responses supplied will enable the Council to develop a business proposal. Any such proposal would be subject to the development and approval of a business case, and, as such, this exercise implies no commercial commitment. This is not a formal tender document.

Participation of this soft market assessment will not prejudice suppliers participating in any future procurement.