Building construction work

Tender description

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the provision of funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) from 600 to 1140 hours per year by 2020. This will support child development by providing high quality services and will support parents to return to work or study. Renfrewshire Council are carrying out a phased approach to delivery the increased entitlement over the next 3 years. Renfrewshire Council requires 5 new builds, 1 major refurbishment, 12 minor adaptations, 9 extensions and 3 new outdoors projects. Ensuring quality will continue to underpin the delivery of early learning and childcare across Renfrewshire. Also continuing to ensure that the expansion to 11:40 hours of early learning and childcare is underpinned by the key principles of accessibility, flexibility and affordability. Renfrewshire’s expansion plan will deliver the following: — an increase in the number of local authority establishments open over a longer day/year from 10 to 24 (includes one service for children with complex needs), — a reduction in the number of local authority services operating only in term time reducing from 22 to 13, — an increase in the number of places commissioned from independent and third sector providers under a framework agreement; and — a blended childcare model with childminders (split place between a childminder and nursery). The phasing plan will require to be refined on a year on year basis, in terms of establishing the exact places available to enable 1140 hours of early learning and childcare to be allocated. The Council has a duty to ensure that the legislative requirement to provide children with 600 hours of funded early learning and childcare is maintained. Nine early learning and childcare nursery classes, located in primary schools, have been identified to become an extended day/50 week per year establishment. The reason for this change of model is in response to the Government advice to ‘use what you have’. Extending the operating hours of the nursery classes to a longer day and full year provision creates a significant number of additional places for children to access their 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare. In order to assist with our market analysis, we are inviting interested parties to complete a Market Analysis Questionnaire to inform the contract strategy. Please submit your completed questionnaire to jenny.thomson@renfrewshire.gov.uk. The deadline for responses is 12:00 noon on Friday 31.8.2018. Any responses received following this deadline may not be reviewed by the Council. The Council is hosting a market engagement day on Tuesday 4.9.2018 and would like to invite the market to attend. This event will provide further information on the Early Years project. If you could like to attend this event please confirm your attendance with jenny.thomson@renfrewshire.gov.uk by Monday 3.9.2018.