Cambridgeshire County Council Independent Visitor Services to Children and Young People

**Please note the window for this opportunity has now closed**

Cambridgeshire County Council will shortly be re-commissioning its Independent Visitor Service for children and young people looked after. We are consulting widely and would like to invite providers with experience in delivering this service to a briefing session. This will be an opportunity for providers to contribute towards shaping the service specification for this service.

The Independent Visitor Service provides volunteers to visit, befriend and advise children who are Looked After and live in foster care, residential homes and residential special schools. Children and young people told the Children's Rights Director that they want independent visitors to give help and support and to have someone to talk to. Very few children said they had been given an independent visitor because they didn't have much contact with their birth family. Children who did not have an independent visitor said it would have been good "to speak to someone who is not employed by the local authority", "telling them things you can't tell other people". Children said the most important skill of an independent visitor is to be a good listener.

Cambridgeshire County Council will be tendering for a 3 year contract with the option to extend for 1 year, subject to the availability of funding. The total value of the contract for the first 3 years will be in the region of £160,000.

The Briefing Session will be held on 20th September 2016 from 12.15 to 2pm at Babbage House on the Shire Hall site, Cambridge CB3 0AT. If you would like to attend please RSVP helen.andrews@cambridgeshire.gov.uk