Psychology Services approved associate list

Tender description

Nottinghamshire County Council is seeking to establish an Associate list for Psychology Services, using a Light Touch Regime style Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). The list will be for individual Associates able to provide support to the Council’s Psychology Services teams, including the Educational Psychology Service (EPS), Virtual School (VS) for Looked After Children, and the Coping with Risky Behaviours (CRB) service. By using a DPS the Council wants to ensure that all qualified Associates have the opportunity to supply their services when they want to. Traditional approaches, which typically are opened every four years, can be inflexible and can “lock out” potential Associates in-between tenders. Under a DPS Associates will be able to submit their application at any point in time whilst the list is in operation and these applications will be evaluated periodically. The process will firstly assess the suitability of applicants to join the list and then offer the opportunity to put themselves forward for assignments, which will be filtered and offered to those on the lists based on their own preferences. The Associate List application process will operate electronically via the councils tendering Portal. Opportunities for assignments will be organised outside the portal, (see section 6 of this document for details) These services will cover the requirements for the following four services. Associates may apply to be included in any list, subject to having the necessary qualifications; • Lot 1: Educational Psychologist Associate • Lot 2: Virtual School Associate • Lot 3: Coping with Risky Behaviours Associate Associates that are successful in demonstrating that they are able to meet the Councils’ standards, as set out in the service specification, will be added to the Associate List and will be subsequently considered for assignments. This provider list is aimed primarily at individual applicants. However agencies / organisations may apply on behalf of consultants they represent as long as the application specifically identifies the individual candidates enough for the panel to score them in the same manner as individual applicants. Note candidates may not be substituted at point of referral. Associates on the list will be expected to evidence the quality of their provision by participating in regular Quality Assurance (QA) checks. Any Associates that fail to maintain the quality standards will be removed from the list, until they are able to successfully re-apply. For the avoidance of doubt, acceptance onto the Associate Lists does not provide a guarantee that any work will be awarded to any Associate admitted to it for the duration of operation of the List.