Pre-Tender Market Engagement: BFriends Community Based Test & Learn Project

Essex County Council would like to invite prospective organisations to participate in a market engagement event in preparation for a forthcoming procurement opportunity to secure a befriending, mentoring and peer-led activities service to be conducted in the Braintree and Chelmsford district areas of Essex.

The market engagement event will be conducted via MS Teams on Monday 28th March 2022, 12 noon to 1:00pm and will include a discussion of the project proposal. If your organisation would like to attend this event, please e-mail lorna.venters@essex.gov.uk by Thursday 24th March 2022 confirming the number of colleagues who wish to attend and an e-mail address to enable the Council to send the link to join the online meeting.

The overarching aim of this project is to provide opportunities for adults with a Learning Disability and / or Autism (LD&A) to participate in local community activities that meet individual goals and aspirations. Community volunteers will support, where appropriate, in the provision of befriending and mentoring activities and the establishment of peer-led groups; the aim should be that peer-led groups should be fully led by LD&A adults. The views of adults, families and carers will be key to ensuring that support is appropriate and responsive to changing patterns of need, and individuals are expected to play a key role in the co-production, design, and delivery of services.

It is the intention of the Council is to commission the Service, from September 2022. The contract will be for 24 months.