Services furnished by business, professional and specialist organisations

Tender description

The Department of Health and Social Care wishes to procure an existing helpline to offer an enhancement to their existing service to support and advise the children of alcohol dependent parents. This procurement will be called the “Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Helpline” which will have a core requirement that is comprised of: a) Provision of an enhanced helpline service that provides support to these vulnerable children and onward referral to services; b) Provision of general advice about the “Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Helpline”, how to access it and what it covers; c) Support awareness raising activity in relation to “Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Helpline”; d) A website and potentially other multi-channel approaches that may include social media to increase the effectiveness of delivery; e) The successful supplier will also need to provide Management Data. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced 500 000 GBP of funding for an existing helpline to support children of alcohol-dependent parents as part of a 3 year project. The helpline is part of an overall 6 000 000 GBP package of measures announced in April 2018 to support these vulnerable children, which also includes investment to fund pilot projects with local authorities and children’s charities. The funding is coming jointly from the DHSC and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Government remains committed to tackling all alcohol related harms, and this work forms part of a new cross Government alcohol strategy which is currently being developed. 1.2 The Department of Health and Social Care wishes to procure an existing helpline to offer an enhancement to their existing service to support and advise the children of alcohol dependent parents. This procurement will be called the “Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Helpline” which will have a core requirement that is comprised of: a) Provision of an enhanced helpline service that provides support to these vulnerable children and onward referral to services; b) Provision of general advice about the “Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Helpline”, how to access it and what it covers; c) Support awareness raising activity in relation to “Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents Helpline”; d) A website and potentially other multi-channel approaches that may include social media to increase the effectiveness of delivery; e) The successful supplier will also need to provide Management Data that provides a breakdown that shows: — Helpline usage data, — How the helpline is used by children and young people, — The issues that children are speaking up about, — Feedback on the helpline service as requested. This data may be used to inform policy development in respect of children of alcohol dependent parents. This information should include data on referrals, follow up action taken and outcomes where available. There should not be a substantial cost associated with this aspect of the contract. The Department of Health and Social Care can work with the successful bidder to agree the best way to obtain this data. The procurement will be awarded in this financial year (2018-19) with a total sum of 500 000 GBP being made available over three financial years 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21.The amounts allocated to each year will be agreed following proposals submitted by the successful bidder on how they intend to initially expand their current service and maintain this in the future. The contract will be reviewed annually to ensure this service continues to meet user requirements. The maximum budget for the service over a 3 year period will not exceed 500 000 GBP, though this is seen as a maximum available and a large percentage of the evaluation criteria for the service will be based on the supplier providing a lower cost base whilst still maintaining certainty of value and quality.