Social work services

Tender description

This is a combined procurement exercise for 2 lots. The first is to administer Departmental funding to support the development of child and family social workers. In particular, for the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). ASYE is an employer-led, induction programme, helping Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSWs) transition into frontline practice. It is key to growing confidence amongst NQSWs and influences the quality of support and service provided to vulnerable children and their families. The second lot is for the development and delivery of new CPD programmes for child and family social workers. In particular delivery of the Practice Supervisor Development Programme (PSDP), a leadership and management development programme for child and family social workers in local authority employment. Practice Supervisors play a pivotal role in delivering good quality services to children and families through their support and oversight of frontline practitioners. The ASYE programme requires a contractor to: — administer payments (of up to GBP 5 600 000) to employers, monitor and track participation and provide associated administrative support and guidance to employers, — support and develop the effectiveness of the ASYE programme including for example a programme of reviews of local programmes, — support the implementation of changes to the ASYE programme, including the use of recognised standards for ASYE participants i.e. embedding the knowledge and skills statement. Additional funding streams may be considered for inclusion at a later date. The PSDP programme is intended to be a leadership and management development programme for child and family social workers making the transition to their first practice supervisor role. The PSDP programme will need to be flexible to reflect both local authority and individual needs. In particular, the programme will need to: — be attractive to social workers and their employers as the programme will be optional, — be developed around the knowledge and skills statements, — be delivered in a way which maximises the potential to improve practice, including being based on a sound evidence base for effective CPD training transfer and integrating with and supporting local models of practice and context. Additional CPD programmes may be considered for inclusion at a later date. The programmes will help participants develop the skills set out in the Knowledge and Skills Statement and ensure they are well prepared for subsequent assessment against this. Bidders will be expected to have expertise in delivering efficient management solutions and a strong knowledge of child and family social work practice, display expertise in the design and delivery of training, in particular relating to leadership and management and have good links to other partners.