Recruitment services

Tender description

A contractor to provide information, coordination and administrative support to local authorities grouped in regional partnerships to assess an anticipated application pool of 6 000 - 8 000 and recruit 550 applicants to the 5th cohort of the Step up to Social Work programme. The contractor will also support these regional partnerships in planning the recruitment of applicants, designing and hosting IT-based application data capture systems and providing an administrative support and staffing function for both stage 1 application assessment and stage 2 regional partnership assessment centres. The contractor will be expected to perform a dual role in respect of applicants to the programme. Firstly, an ongoing quality assurance function to regional partnerships and DfE on applications and applicant tracking at all stages of the process from appointment in December 2016 through to end of contract. Secondly, as a single, accurate and consistent contact point and source of information for applicants at all stages of the assessment process. Tasks will include managing acknowledgements of applications and results promptly (e.g. 95 % of responses to applicant queries/complaints in 24 hours) following both the initial sift and the subsequent assessment process and assessment centre phase. Options for the contractor to provide an applicant satisfaction survey with the admin process will also be explored as part of the role. The contractor is expected to liaise with up to 20 regional partnerships across England, likely to consist of over 105 local authorities, in order to coordinate the assessment process and assessment centres. There will be a requirement for the contractor to work closely with these regional partnerships to provide on-going support during and after the assessment process. The period from contract award to the assessment centres will involve intense activity to administer and respond to applications accurately and securely and to support the regional partnerships in their planning for assessment. Further information is available on https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder