Pre-Tender Market Engagement: BFriends Community Based Test and Learn Project

Tender description

<p>Essex County Council would like to invite prospective organisations to participate in a market engagement event in preparation for a forthcoming procurement opportunity to secure a befriending, mentoring and peer-led activities service to be conducted in the Braintree and Chelmsford district areas of Essex.</p> <p>The market engagement event will be conducted via MS Teams on Monday 28th March 2022, 12noon to 1:00pm and will include a discussion of the project proposal. If your organisation would like to attend this event, please e-mail lorna.venters@essex.gov.uk by Thursday 24^th March 2022 confirming the number of colleagues who wish to attend and an email address to enable the Council to send the link to join the online meeting.</p> <p>The overarching aim of this project is to provide opportunities for adults with a Learning Disability and / or Autism (LD&amp;A) to participate in local community activities that meet individual goals and aspirations. Community volunteers will support, where appropriate, in the provision of befriending and mentoring activities and the establishment of peer-led groups; the aim should be that peer-led groups should be fully led by LD&amp;A adults. The views of adults, families and carers will be key to ensuring that support is appropriate and responsive to changing patterns of need, and individuals are expected to play a key role in the co-production, design, and delivery of services.</p> <p>It is the intention of the Council is to commission the Service, from September 2022. The contract will be for 24 months.</p> Keywords: LD&A, mentoring, Learning Disability and Autism, Befriending, BFriends, community