Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme

Portsmouth City Council ('the council') is inviting tenders from suitably qualified provider(s) to deliver a family hub model and associated services that will assist families with the integrated support they need to care for their children from conception, throughout the early years, and into the start of adulthood. This is to enable parents to establish a firm foundation for their children, from which to meet their full potential in life.

Currently, the Council have individual contracts for the delivery of crucial family orientated services delivered as part of our Family Hub offer. The intention of this tender is to bring together this service offer through either a consortium bid with a lead supplier, or single provider bid. The provider(s) will oversee all Family Hub projects commissioned through this tender, to ensure maximum potential and effectiveness is reached. There are five existing council properties that will be available for the delivery of this contract at no cost. Alongside this, the provider(s) will need to use local community facilities to support the extension of stay and play services in the city.

The provisions will consist of two elements, 'core' and 'extended' which will form a single contract. The funding for these core services is provided by the council, and the extended offer is funded by the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care in relation to the Government grant, consequently, the Council cannot provide certainty as to the long-term funding of the extended offer after the initial two-year Contract term has come to an end.

The contract will have an initial term of two years with the potential to extend for a further three years subject to performance and at the sole option of the Council.

The total value of the contract, inclusive of both core and extended services, for the initial 24-month contract period is £1,259,696. In the event that extension opportunities are taken up for both elements the contract value could increase to IRO £3,500,000. This value has been calculated based on the value of both elements in the initial term remaining the same for the extended period plus an allowance for inflationary increases.

Though there is the possibility that funding may increase or decrease during the duration of the Contract terms, this is currently unknown and is dependent on external factors such as future government grants. If funding for the extended offer is removed by the end of the two-year period, the provider will continue to offer the core services. The level of the core service in each area of the specification will be dependent on the most progressive service arrangements in years 1 and 2, along with parental needs.

The services covered under the contract are health and social work services and 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 procurement process will be undertaken in line with the following programme:

It is the intention of the Council that our new service offer will be operational from (or as close to) July 2023, depending on TUPE and mobilisation requirements of the winning bid.

Application is via completed tender submission by the deadline stated above via the Council's e-sourcing system InTend which will be used to administrate the procurement process, the system can be accessed free of charge via the web link below:

https://in-tendhost.co.uk/portsmouthcc/aspx/home