Health and social work services

Tender description

A group of health and social care regulators are seeking to set up a framework in order to access lay advocates and intermediaries (who have been trained and registered under the criminal justice scheme as registered intermediaries) to provide person centred support to members of the public with additional needs who are involved with regulatory cases. The role of lay advocates and intermediaries will be to help members of the public who have additional needs to participate in the regulatory process. For example the member of the public may need support to fully communicate their concerns to the regulator, or need assistance to understand the processes. Lay advocates and intermediaries are not qualified legal professionals and their role is not to provide legal advice or legal advocacy on the case. For the purpose of the overarching management of the framework, the Nursing and Midwifery Council will be acting as the lead health and social care regulator. We are seeking to access to a range of providers who have experience in delivering: (a) general and specialist lay advocacy, based on the needs of the member of the public; (b) intermediary support, based on the needs of the witness. This is in order to provide specialist workers to enable members of the public who need additional support to meaningfully engage with a complex legal process and make their own decisions. The health and social care regulators investigate concerns raised with them. Some of these investigations will result in formal hearings, which are similar to court proceedings. Members of the public may be asked to give evidence during an investigation and to appear as witnesses at a formal hearing. The level of support identified for this lot is: A. Lay advocates: to provide independent communication support to members of the public who are not witnesses in the regulatory case. Examples of this support are: support to communicate views, wishes and feelings, assistance to understand information; assistance to use or weigh up the information and moral support. We are seeking to access to a range of providers who have experience in delivering: (a) general and specialist lay advocacy, based on the needs of the member of the public; (b) intermediary support, based on the needs of the witness. This is in order to provide specialist workers to enable members of the public who need additional support to meaningfully engage with a complex legal process and make their own decisions. The health and social care regulators investigate concerns raised with them. Some of these investigations will result in formal hearings, which are similar to court proceedings. Members of the public may be asked to give evidence during an investigation and to appear as witnesses at a formal hearing. The level of support identified for this lot is: B. Lay advocates: to provide independent communication support to members of the public who are witnesses, but do not need direct support to provide a witness statement or when giving evidence at a hearing. Examples of this support are: support to communicate views, wishes and feelings, assistance to understand information; assistance to use or weigh up the information and moral support. We are seeking to access to a range of providers who have experience in delivering: (a) general and specialist lay advocacy, based on the needs of the member of the public; (b) intermediary support, based on the needs of the witness. This is in order to provide specialist workers to enable members of the public who need additional support to meaningfully engage with a complex legal process and make their own decisions. The health and social care regulators investigate concerns raised with them. Some of these investigations will result in formal hearings, which are similar to court proceedings. Members of the public may be asked to give evidence during an investigation and to appear as witnesses at a formal hearing. The level of support identified for this lot is: C. Intermediaries: to provide communication assessment and support to members of the public and the regulator, where witnesses in the case need direct support to provide a witness statement or when giving evidence at a hearing. The intermediary will be trained and registered to work for the Ministry of Justice and their primary duty is to the regulator.