Social work services with accommodation

Tender description

The London Borough of Hackney children and family services is in the process of redesigning its current supported accommodation pathway for looked after children, care leavers and single homeless young people aged 16-21. The London Borough of Hackney children and family services is in the process of redesigning its current supported accommodation pathway for looked after children, care leavers and single homeless young people aged 16-21. Young people who are looked after, care leavers, or homeless need somewhere safe and suitable to live to help them make a positive transition into adulthood. A secure housing base is also critical to young people progressing in other areas of life, such as education, training or employment, improved mental health, relationships and building of social networks. Hackney has an increasing demand for good quality supported accommodation as our looked after children’s population get older and start leaving care. As at 31.3.2019 there were 149 16/17 years old looked after. This represents a 25 % increase from 2018 (119 children) and a 57 % increase (95 children) since 2015. Wherever possible, we endeavour to find the right placement the first time through robust care planning and matching processes to support placement stability. If the needs of the young person are of a highly specialist nature or there are legitimate safeguarding reasons for making a placement at a greater distance, we will try to accommodate the young person as close to home as possible. To support these priorities, we have committed to: — provide and commission the right mix of high quality placements to meet identified needs of looked after children and care leavers as cost effectively as possible, — support children and young people in care to make a successful transition into adulthood through the provision of high quality leaving care services which support care leavers to find and maintain suitable accommodation arrangements that meet their needs and provide them with independent living skills. Strengthen the involvement of children, young people, families, carers and professionals in the design, delivery and evaluation of placement provision. The new pathway will provide access to emergency accommodation, assessment, progression and move through services to enable a seamless transition through to independence. The pathway will focus on improving outcomes for young people and will provide high quality support and accommodation for young people with personalised interventions and flexible support to enable them to be able to move on to independent living. We are particularly interested in working with providers who currently use the principles and practices associated with Psychological informed environments (PIEs) or have elements of this or a similar approach already embedded in service delivery in practice. The services are likely to be divided into the following lots: Lot 1: access to emergency accommodation; Lot 2: assessment; Lot 3: Progression; Lot 4: move through (lower support services). The estimated value per lot will be published in the contracts notice. Hackney Council wishes to consult with providers in relation to the above services and has organised a ‘market engagement’ event to assist in shaping its commissioning process. The market engagement event will take place on Wednesday 25.9.2019 10.00 a.m. to 01.00 p.m. Providers will be given the opportunity to not only listen to the Council’s vision, but to contribute to the discussion on shaping the model of our new young people’s supported accommodation pathway. Spaces are limited and will be offered on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. If you would like to participate in this unique event, please register your interest by using the messaging function on ProContract/London Tenders by 18.9.2019. Interested organisations are requested to state their area of expertise and can consider whether each or all of the above services can be provided collectively or in part. In addition, interested organisations are requested to complete the supplier questionnaire on the London Tenders portal.