NOMS Prisoner, Family & Significant Other Support Services

Tender description

The purpose of this contract is to offer services to support, maintain and develop positive relationships between offenders, their family and significant others to reduce re-offending and prevent intergenerational crime. We would like to identify innovative approaches to meet the diverse needs of offenders who may or may not have established relationships with their family and significant others. It is recognised that supporting and maintaining links between offenders their families and significant others can help reduce re-offending and that doing so may also contribute to tackling intergenerational offending by addressing the poor outcomes faced by children of offenders. NOMS Commissioning Intentions sets an expectation on prison providers to work with Local Authorities and third sector partners to promote inclusion of, and maximise opportunities to offender’s families and their significant others. Visitors’ centres can be a focal point for offering support to families if they are used for services other than visits and include homework clubs and the delivery of family learning activities. This contract will also require creative approaches to delivering services to engage families and significant others where relationships are broken down, to develop and re-establish positive relationships. The provider can offer signposting to a range of support services, decrease the stress associated with separation, early days in prison, the duration of a sentence. The use of a visits centre can be to facilitate inter agency working and depending on the location can engage with community services when the centre is not being used such as a playgroup where facilities can be utilised. Prisons do vary greatly in their nature and in the facilities they have available. A variety of family related services are delivered across the estate including Parenting and Relationship Skills courses, Mother and Baby Units at female establishments, Family Engagement Workers and Visitors Centres. Visitors Centre Services at a number of establishments in England and Wales also captures the requirement for Family Engagement Workers within establishments where a requirement is identified. The range of services required at each establishment will be determined locally and will vary depending on a range of factors, including but not limited to; location, accessibility, available facilities and the category of the establishment. As a consequence, there are a number of requirements that may need to be factored into the structure of any procurement process for the named services. Not all establishments within the prison estate have a contracted out service, as some continue to deliver in-house, and there are some where there is a mix of outsourced and in-house elements. The contract value stated in this Future Opportunity Notice are indicative at this stage and will be set when the Opportunity Notice has been published