Supervised contact and Welfare visits for children and families - Soft Market Testing

Tender description

Brighter Futures for Children is a not-for-profit company, owned by, but independent of, Reading Borough Council. We took over the responsibility for the delivery of children's services in Reading in December 2018. We work closely with partners in the local community and key organisations including the council, police, public health and voluntary groups. We are responsible for the delivery of children's social care, early help & prevention, education services (including SEND). This also includes fostering and adoption, the Youth Offending Service and traded services with schools. Brighter Futures for Children is considering options for commissioning supervised contact services and welfare visits. Commissioners would like to undertake a soft market testing exercise. This gives potential providers and other stakeholders the opportunity to express their interests and feed in their views about a potential service model and service definitions. The commissioners will use the information to appraise options and further develop the specification. Lot 1: Our strategic intention for supervised contact and welfare visit services is to commission high quality, outcomes focussed support services for children and their families. The type, frequency and location of support will vary; some people may need a few hours a week of locally based supervision and support for a limited period. There may be a requirement to offer support outside of the Reading area, in accordance with individual circumstances. There may also be a requirement to offer a service during evenings and weekends in some cases. Our requirements are to a focus on developing a model of support which achieves services that are high quality, flexible, creative, sustainable and provide value for money for the long term. We also require a service that meet these needs in a way that reflects good practice ensuring that legislative and regulatory standards are adhered to effectively. Additional information: This process does not constitute a formal tender or other competitive bidding process and will not result in the letting of a Contract. The commissioners are using this process solely to test the market to gather information and ascertain the level of interest in this type of service. There are therefore no formal criteria which we will use to judge your responses, responses will not be scored and it is not our intention to provide any feedback.