Welfare services for children and young people

Tender description

The Children’s Trust wishes to establish a contract for the provision of a Birmingham Young Carers Service providing a range of services to support carers in the city. This service (Contract 2) will have close links to the Birmingham Carers HUB (Contract 1) and Mental Health Service (Birmingham) (Contract 3), all services are separate procurements. This contract will last for 2 years and 9 months (unless terminated under the terms of the contract). The young carers’ service will provide interventions to young people and their families that support Birmingham Children’s Trust vision and practice model, as outlined in this service specification. Interventions will be grounded in the relationship-based tradition, and influenced by systemic, strengths based and restorative approaches. The young carers service will work to the Early Help guidelines, as outlined in “Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018)” and “Birmingham’s Early Help Strategy” (2018–2022). The service will work with young carers ensuring needs are addressed at the earliest opportunity, preventing the escalation of need and maximising opportunities for educational and social development. Service aims: The aims of the young carers service are as follows: — to carry out assessments of young carers needs, — to provide a whole-family approach to supporting young carers, through an integrated partnership approach, — to provide early intervention and support to prevent, reduce or delay escalation of need, — provide young carers with personalised support so they can as individuals, achieve the outcomes they need which will support them to learn, develop, enjoy their childhood and for them to achieve their full potential, — raise awareness of young carers needs within schools and provide assistance to schools in adopting young carer friendly policies and practices, — raise awareness of young carers needs amongst other universal and statutory services. 1) Service targets: — to work with a minimum of 350 new young carers and their families each year, — to work with at least a total of 650–800 young carers and their families each year, — to provide training to a minimum of 20 schools, including secondary and primary schools each year and on-going support; 2) Service activity: The service provider will work in close partnership with other agencies to provide a co-ordinated and whole family response to meeting the needs of young carers. The service will include the following components: i) a robust referral process, ii) complete an assessment, iii) targeted one-to-one support to young carers, iv) group work support/activities, v) work with the whole family, vi) arrange support for the parent/adult requiring care, vii) provide dedicated support to schools; to raise awareness and support of young carers including: viii) work in partnership with other agencies.