CR: Children and Young People’s Advisory Board for Children’s Social Care

Tender description

Department for Education is seeking to appoint a provider for a Children and young people's advisory board. Children and young people (as well as families) have a vital part to play in our vision to transform children’s social care and we want to ensure their voice is at the core of our work as we progress our policy development and delivery both at a national and local level. We are seeking to create an Advisory Board of children and young people aged 11-25 with a wide range of care experience. Our aim for the board is that they can support in challenging our policy development as we move into the delivery phase of reform and that the views they share are given equal weighting to those from the sector. Young people told us that opportunities to share their views with Ministers and senior civil servants directly is important to them. SCS across children’s social care agree that this is a priority and we need to continue listening to children and young people as an integral part of our work. Safeguarding and pastorally caring for board members is our absolute priority as well as enabling the children and young people involved to develop their own skills and experience – and we need a contractor to support us to do this well. We will expect a contractor to support us with these key elements which we do not have expertise to deliver in house – this particularly relates to safeguarding expertise, pastoral care and experience in enabling children and young people to engage in a professional environment. We will also expect a contract to support us with protecting children and young people’s personal data. Any potential contractor will need to adhere to DfE’s stringent standards on GDPR and demonstrate this effectively through their policies and procedures. The estimated contract term is mid November 2023 - 31st of March 25 with an optional 12 month extension.