Children’s Residential Care and Education Services including Short Breaks

Tender description

This is a Prior Information Notice (PIN) relating only to the engagement with providers of Children's Residential Services. This is not a procurement process at this stage. Scotland Excel manage the national Children’s Residential Care and Education, including Short Breaks, framework on behalf of the 32 Scottish Local Authorities. As framework owners, we are aware of the significant changes taking place in respect of policy and strategic change, including The Promise, and the potential influences these bring on the future of residential care and education services in Scotland. We would like to understand, from the perspective of Providers delivering these services (whether currently providing services under the framework or not), what impacts or changes you are experiencing or foreseeing in the sector at this time. We have included a link to a survey (attached below) to enable providers to feedback to us on this. This Prior Information Notice is for market research purposes only at this time to inform potential future commissioning activity. Please disregard the "Estimated date of publication of contract notice date". Background Information Scotland Excel has managed a national Children’s Residential Care framework since 2014. As framework owners, we are aware of the significant changes taking place in respect of policy and strategic change, including The Promise, and the potential influences these bring on the future of residential care and education services in Scotland. We would like to understand, from the perspective of Providers delivering these services (whether currently providing services under the framework or not), what impacts or changes you are experiencing or foreseeing in the sector at this time. Spend through the framework and the number of placements commissioned has increased since the launch of the current framework in 2018. However, there is some indication that this increase in both spend and number of placements has slowed in recent quarters. For both spend and the number of placements, the initial growth may be attributed to contract coverage and/or framework utilisation. Policy Change Scotland Excel have been engaging with Local Authorities to understand how The Promise may affect the purchasing and design of residential care for children and young people in coming years. Several local authorities reported having plans in place, or in development, to promote: - Early intervention and prevention; - Specialist resources to address specific risk factors in children and young people; - Community based alternatives to care – including intensive support services; or - Supports focussed on preventing the need for, or returning children from, residential care. Survey Details We have included a link to a survey (attached below) to enable providers to feedback to us. Link to Survey can be found here: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/HTTAX6/ The survey should take between 15 - 30 minutes to complete. The survey will remain open until Monday 1st November. The questions contained within the survey are to assist Scotland Excel in understanding, from the perspective of providers, this data and how these current trends and influences have or could affect service provision. The survey also contains information on further engagement. Responses which are provided will be anonymised, collated and reviewed and may be used by Scotland Excel in a variety of different ways including, but not limited to, the following: - To inform decision making and next steps in respect of Scotland Excel’s framework agreements; - To help inform a view on current influences on the provision of these services nationally; - Form analysis which is provided to stakeholders, including Councils, in feedback sessions which may be used to assist with their involvement in the development of any future procurement exercise; and - May inform aspects in the engagement for future commissioning activity conducted by Scotland Excel. Scotland Excel may follow up directly with those submitting responses to request further information on their views. This is the first stage in the provider engagement that we intend to conduct, and will give us a basis with which to develop our later engagement. We thank you in advance for providing us with this information. Please disregard the date within the "Estimated date of publication of contract notice" section.