Welfare services for children and young people

Tender description

Hertfordshire County Council (the Council) is carrying out pre-procurement market engagement in relation to services currently provided by its School Nursing Services, Health Visiting Services and by its Children's Centres. The Council is currently considering how best to provide these services that support the health and wellbeing of pre-birth through to school aged children. Hertfordshire needs a service offer that is more aligned across these services, integrates better with other external services and provides a more comprehensive range of outcomes for children and their families. At this early stage, the Council is considering a model that delivers the following Outcomes and Services: Outcomes — Healthy, resilient children, young people and families. — All children are school ready and able to learn to achieve good levels of educational attainment. — Children and young people who are developing well, thriving and safe. — Early identification of issues and evidence based interventions delivered. — Parents/Carers are confident and able to parent their children. — Professionals working together and sharing information. — Service user experience. Services — Financial and employment advice. — Health visiting services. — Ante-natal, perinatal services. — Parenting classes. — Emotional health and wellbeing support and information. — Drug and alcohol advice, signposting and information. — Relationship and parenting support. — Healthy diet & healthy lifestyle services. — School nurse services. — Prescribing. — Distribution of Healthy Start vitamins. — Supporting child development and school readiness. — Support for parents to access free early education and childcare places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds. — Promotion of public health messages. — Targeted support for vulnerable families. — Signposting/Referral to other services. The key principles for the new aligned Services are: — the Services will be high quality, accessible and flexible to children and young people, parents and professionals; — the Services will work to safeguard, protect from harm and promote the welfare of children and will follow Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Board's policies and procedures; — the Services will seek to close the gap in educational achievement, between disadvantaged families and their peers; — the Services will address health inequalities; — the Services will improve the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of children, young people and their families; — the Services' purpose will be communicated and understood by families and professionals; — the Services will take a prevention based approach, intervening as early as possible; — the Services will have clear and robustly embedded responsibilities in regard to the role of the school nurse, the health visitor, children's centre staff and other allied professionals relating to the delivery of early education, health and wellbeing for babies, children, young people and their families; — the Services will deliver evidence informed interventions; — the Services will be responsive and adaptive to the needs of babies, children, young people and their families, and their changing usage of technology and communications methods. The overarching Outcome for the future delivery of the Services is for Hertfordshire families to thrive and prosper with minimal health and social inequalities and reduced vulnerability factors that negatively impact on life chances. Future contract values are yet to be determined; however current annual expenditure in 2016/17 on existing services is as follows: — Health Visiting Services: 15 400 000 GBP — School Nursing Services: 4 000 000 GBP — Children's Centres: 12 300 000 GBP Please note that any forthcoming contract requirements will be subject to available financial resources, supplier performance and flexibility to meet changing demands. It is currently anticipated that the Council will commence a procurement process in autumn 2017, with a new service commencing in June 2018. The anticipated contract term is 6 years with the option to extend annually for up to a further 2 years. It is likely that the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) will apply. The purpose of the Council's pre-procurement market engagement process is to allow and enable potentially interested organisations with appropriate expertise and relevant experience to: — Outline and generate initial views/ideas around the Outcomes, scope and the potential procurement strategy (i.e. with no commitment to themselves or the Council); — Engage with the Council to understand its challenges, intentions and desired Outcomes; — Provide informal input to help shape or refine the Council's service requirements; — Inform the Council of current market developments; — Enable the Council to understand how the Services could be shaped and delivered; — Explore and report potential service delivery options to the Council; — Enable the Provider Event to facilitate the formation of potential consortia and/or supply chains. The Council will consider the feedback and responses received to help inform the Council's options and further decision making. For the avoidance of doubt, this stage of the project is not part of a formal procurement process and the Council is not committing, at this stage, to carrying out such a process. Participation or non-participation in the pre-procurement market engagement process shall not prevent any provider participating in a potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of the pre-procurement process shall place any provider at an advantage in a potential procurement process. No information contained in this PIN or any other document or communication made between the Council and any provider in connection with its pre-procurement market engagement shall be relied upon as constituting a contract, agreement or representation that any contract shall be awarded and no representation, warranty, or undertaking is given by the Council as to their accuracy or completeness, and the Council accepts no liability in relation to this. The Council will not treat as confidential, any information submitted in response to this process, and respondents should note that the Council is subject to the requirements under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and may be obliged to disclose responses. Participation in the pre-procurement market engagement process will be at each provider's own cost. No expense in responding to this process will be reimbursed by the Council. This pre-procurement market engagement process will comprise: — Completion of the Provider Survey, following the instructions detailed in Section VI.2 (Additional Information) below; and — A Provider Event on the morning of Tuesday 13.12.2016 at Hertfordshire Development Centre, Robertson House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, SG1 2FQ. Further details are given in Section VI.2 (Additional Information) below. Please be advised that both the Provider Survey and Provider Event are optional. We would encourage providers to complete the Provider Survey, as this will be used to help shape the structure and content of the Provider Event. However, providers will be able to attend the Provider Event, even if they have not completed the Provider Survey and providers are also welcome to complete the Provider Survey, even if they are unable to attend the Provider Event. The Council will provide a copy of the slides from the Provider Event and any other relevant information from the pre-procurement market engagement to all interested parties.