Health and social work services

Tender description

Welsh Government has provided direction that the commissioning of advocacy for children and Young People is to be procured collaboratively to achieve a consistency in service across regions. Caerphilly County Borough Council has been nominated as lead Authority to proceed with a regional arrangement for the provision of an advocacy service on behalf of five local authorities and the Health Board. The region includes: — Caerphilly County Borough Council, — Newport City Council, — Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, — Torfaen County Borough Council, — Monmouthshire County Council and — Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. The local authorities/Health board within the region will be seeking quality whilst maximising the efficiencies gained by the aggregation of service provision. Full details can be found in the ITT. The Service Provider shall be able to offer the service of an ‘Active Offer’, which is the sharing of information about the statutory right and entitlement of a child or young person in particular circumstances to access support from an Independent Professional Advocacy Service. The information shared shall include an explanation about the role of Independent Professional Advocacy, what it can and cannot do, how it operates based on their wishes and feelings, its independence and how it works solely for the child/young person, it's confidentiality policy and significant harm — it explains the statutory right of children and young people to be supported to express their views, wishes and feelings as well as their right to make a representation or complaint. This lot is for the provision of an Independent Visitor who is able to build up more of a long term relationship with a child or young person. The Independent Visitor shall visit, befriend and advise children and young people who are living away from home and have little or no contact with their family. This includes in and out of county placements (residential and fostering), following a referral. They contribute towards their social, emotional and educational development (which also includes being aware of the child or young person's racial, cultural and religious needs). Families First is the Welsh Government's key national programme for designing better integrated support for families living in poverty. The principal focus is to support families through interventions at the preventative and protective stages. The Programme aims to drive improvements to family support design and delivery, and in so doing, reduce the numbers of families developing more complex needs and requiring more intensive and costly interventions. The project will ensure that all children and young people within the project are aware of, have access to information regarding their rights and the advocacy service available to them. Advocates will assist in raising the confidence of children and young people referred to the service so that in the future they are empowered to voice their views themselves with less or no support. When asked to do so, the Service Provider will provide training and support to encourage professionals, families and community members to become advocates for children and young people. An Independent professional advocacy service provided to children and young people across the region which is person-centred, issue-based and outcome-focussed. The service will provide support and / or representation at reviews, conferences and other relevant meetings when a child has an Advocacy requirement and explicitly consents to the advocacy provision. In delivering the service, the provider shall comply with all regulations, standards, legislation, directions, code of practice and any amendments or replacements relevant to the Service. In particular it will measure its performance against the National Independent Advocacy Standards and Outcomes Framework for Children and Young People in Wales 2015. An independent advocacy service is designed to provide safeguards for children and young people and it is imperative that the advocates providing the service should be free to support them, without any conflicts of interest, and to appropriately challenge service providers on the children and young people's behalf.