Advocacy and Independent Visitors Service

Tender description

Dorset County Council is seeking tenders from suitably experienced and capable service providers for Advocacy and Independent Visitor Services. Dorset County Council has a statutory duty to provide an independent advocacy service that supports children and young people to have their views and wishes taken into account when key decisions are being made about their lives. This includes children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. Dorset County Council also have a statutory duty to provide an independent visitor service for looked after children if they believe that it would be in the child’s best interest to have one. Dorset County Council want to ensure that children’s views and wishes are taken into account when decisions about their lives are being made. They want to ensure that the children’s workforce are able to advocate on behalf of the child and where needed, that there is access to an independent advocacy service. In addition, they would like the service to provide training to the wider workforce and support children to self-advocate. Dorset County Council also want to ensure that any looked after child that would benefit from an independent visitor has access to this service if they wish. For children who do not fall within the scope of this contract, Dorset County Council want to be able to ‘spot’ purchase advocacy at a pre-determined price as and when the service is required. The contract will cover the period 1st December 2017 to 30th November 2019 with the possibility to extend for one further 12 month period. The Contract Value is the maximum of £150,000 per annum and Total Contract Value equating to £450,000. Therefore we are seeking bids up to this value. Keywords: Visitors, Children, Young People, Advocacy