Welfare services for children and young people

Tender description

Hertfordshire County Council (the ‘Council’) is carrying out pre-procurement market engagement in relation to its requirement for a Complex Needs Residential Children's Service in Hertfordshire. Therefore the Council has published this Prior Information Notice (PIN) to alert potentially interested organisations with appropriate expertise and / or relevant experience of this potential opportunity and the contracting authority's intentions. The Council is looking for interested organisations to complete and submit the Supplier Questionnaire. 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. - Inform the Council of current market developments. - Enable the Council to understand how the Current Requirements could be shaped and delivered. - Explain potential solutions available to the Council. The Council is looking to develop a service designed to support young people with autistic spectrum disorder and / or challenging behaviour and their families. The aim of the service is to keep children and young people with autistic spectrum disorder and / or challenging behaviour living near their families in Hertfordshire, receiving the support they need, while maintaining close family, educational and professional networks. Hertfordshire County Council have an opportunity to use an existing Children's Services vacant property in Wynchlands Crescent, St Albans to provide a dedicated local 5 bed accommodation resource for young people with complex needs aged between 13 and 19 years. This service will provide an alternative to current out of county placements with the benefits of keeping children local, enabling more effective transition into adult support services locally, developing a shared care opportunity supporting families to cope for longer and growing local expertise in complex needs. The proposal fits with the strategic ambition of ‘Keeping Children in Local Education’ and building capacity in local settings. 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 supplier participating in a potential future procurement, nor is it intended that any information supplied as part of the pre-procurement process shall place any supplier at an advantage in a potential procurement process. Participation in the pre-procurement market engagement procurement process will be at each supplier's own cost. No expense in responding to this process will be reimbursed by the Council. The Council will not enter into a contract based solely on the responses to this PIN and no information contained in the documents or in any communication made between the Council and any contractor 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. This pre-procurement market engagement process will comprise: o Submission of the Supplier Questionnaire (please see Appendix A of the pre-procurement market engagement documentation) following the instructions detailed in Section VI.2 below. Supplier Questionnaires must be received by 12 Noon on Wednesday 30.11.2016.