Social work and related services

Tender description

To meet the business objectives described in the tender specification and support this programme of work, the DfE requires a fully managed service where: • information, coordination and administrative support will be provided to local authorities grouped in regional partnerships to assess an anticipated application pool of c.6 000 — 8 000 and recruit 700 applicants to the seventh cohort of the step up to social work programme. • support will be provided to regional partnerships in planning the recruitment of applicants, via an IT-based application data capture system that will be designed and hosted, with administrative support and staffing function for both stage one application assessment and stage two regional partnership assessment centres. • the contractor shall perform a dual role in respect of applicants to the programme, namely: — an ongoing quality assurance function to regional partnerships and DfE on applications and applicant tracking at all stages of the process from ap Step up to social work complements our reform programme and our commitment to raising the quality of social work practice, with a particular focus on the practice of child and family social workers undertaking statutory social work. Local authorities (and trusts or other organisations delivering statutory children’s social care services on behalf of local authorities) are invited to bid to participate in the seventh cohort as part of a regional partnership. Previously, step up was delivered by 136 Local Authorities (LAs), working together via 22 regional partnerships. We expect similar numbers of LAs and regional partnerships to participate in cohort 7, offering up to 700 places between them. Trainees are based within LAs/regional partnerships which contract with HE providers of social work education to deliver the training element and accredit qualifications. We expect all regional partnerships to take part in cohort 7.