Social work services

Tender description

The Department expects to roll out the assessment and accreditation system (NAAS) for child and family social workers in a phased delivery model from July 2018. National rollout is expected to begin in Spring 2020. For more information, see https://consult.education.gov.uk/social-work-reform-unit/naas-consultation/ The purpose of this Notice is: i) to inform the market of potential future procurement for the production and maintenance of future assessment content (questions and exercises) and to enable the potential suppliers to plan for this; ii) to advise the market and potential suppliers that we intend to hold a market engagement event on 18.7.2018 from 13:00 to 16:00 at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel, 20 Mercer Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9HD. This contract supports the continued social work reform programme agreed by Ministers to achieve the ambition for all child and family social workers, supervisors and practice leaders to be assessed and accredited. The Chief Social Worker drafted the knowledge and skills statements (KSS) for child and family frontline social workers, practice supervisors and practice leaders setting out what they should know and be able to do. The KSS are now post-qualifying standards. Alongside this, the department has developed a rigorous assessment system, based on these statements for frontline and practice supervisors. The assessment and accreditation system consists of: 1) An online assessment of knowledge; 2) An observed simulated practice assessment in a controlled environment with independent assessors; 3) A written assessment linked to the simulated practice assessment. 4) A reflective assessment linked to the simulated practice assessment. The Department, with help from social work practitioners, psychometricians and academics developed and refined content for a phased rollout of the assessment starting in July 2018. The purpose of the proposed procurement will be to select and appoint a supplier for the production and maintenance of NAAS assessment content (questions and exercises) for national rollout, which is expected to commence in Spring 2020. It is the expectation that any bidder is able to provide analytical expertise and expert item writers, expert professional social work knowledge and expert psychometric knowledge within its content production proposals. The Department requires the contractor to: — Analyse data from the phased rollout of the assessment on how the content and standard are working, — Plan and produce assessment content, including planning, creation, and live testing, this includes: —— knowledge based assessment questions, —— simulated practice assessments, —— written assessments linked to the simulated practice assessment, —— reflective assessments linked to the simulated practice assessments, —— marking schemes for the simulated practice assessments, written assessments and reflective assessments. — Provide editorial and quality assurance services, — Configuration management and security of the assessment, — Managing the release of assessment content toto the delivery partner.