For the Provision of Personal Support and Social Work Services to the United Kindom (UK) Royal Air Force (RAF)

Tender description

It is United Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MOD) Royal Air Force (RAF) policy to provide a range of welfare support services to the RAF community in the UK. The MOD’s definition of Welfare is: ‘The provision of a widely recognised and accessible personal and community support structure that secures and improves the well-being of serving personnel and the Service community, is capable of adapting to societal, legislative and operational change and, in so doing, optimises the military capability and motivation of all Service men and women.’ RAF personnel and their families tend to lead a more mobile lifestyle than the civilian population, being posted to a different location every few years and often living in relatively remote areas. Mobility and the isolation of some units can separate RAF personnel and their families from their own extended family support mechanism. Moreover, Service families become separated from time to time, for periods of 6 months or more, when the Serving person is deployed abroad on operations or exercises. To take account of these factors, the RAF would like to continue to offer a contracted non-statutory Personal Support Service to the RAF Community that compliments other welfare support provided by the MOD, the RAF and Local Authority Statutory Agencies. This Advert is to seek interest from Industry for the provision of an output based non-statutory personal support and social work service to circa 32,000 RAF personnel, Regular and Reserves assigned to RAF administered units in the UK, as well as their families (spouses/civil partners and eligible children) in accordance with the contract Statement of Requirement. This will include the provision of confidential welfare support to Serving personnel and their families and specialist advice to unit staffs and station welfare casework committee meetings. The contract will be for five core years commencing 01 April 2017 to 31 March 2022, with a further two option years covering 01 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 and 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Separate from the main requirement, the MOD (the Authority) wishes to preserve an option to consider a possible additional service of local Welfare Advisors to deliver practical and emotional support and welfare intervention activities to circa 1700 Service personnel undergoing training in Phase 1 and Phase 2 RAF administered training establishments.