Published date: 8 December 2017

Last edited date: 8 December 2017

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 21 January 2018

Contract summary

Industry

  • Education and training services - 80000000

  • Social work and related services - 85300000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£0

Procurement reference

1492

Published date

8 December 2017

Closing date

21 January 2018

Contract start date

2 April 2018

Contract end date

31 March 2020

Contract type

Not applicable

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

See 'Attachments' for a word version of the description and further information. The Governments teaching partnerships programme brings universities and local authorities together to deliver high quality training for social workers. These partnerships aim improve the recruitment, retention and development of social workers and the overall quality of practice.

We define a social work teaching partnership as:

'an accredited collaboration between HEIs and employers which delivers high quality training for social work students and qualified practitioners and equips them to practise to specified standards in statutory settings. '

Social work teaching partnerships are an opportunity to give social work students the right knowledge and skills, and creating outstanding qualified practitioners. Existing partnerships are already developing the right environments for excellent practice and innovation to flourish. We expect all teaching partnerships, new and existing to exercise high standards in training and support for professional practice and to exemplify what can be done as we move towards the establishment of a new regulator for the social work profession.

Teaching partnerships offer a great opportunity for working together to invest in the highest standards of social work education and practice. They provide the chance to ensure that we have more good placements available for students, more support for practice educators and more input from practicing social workers and people with lived experience in educating social work students. In turn, this will help to create and sustain a learning culture for social workers and organisations.
This third expansion of the teaching partnership programme marks a long-term commitment to academic rigor and valued research. Making sure practice is at the heart of all that we do is the key focus of this Government's social care reform strategy. Teaching partnerships form a very important part of this. We all have a responsibility to make sure that, children, families and vulnerable adults receive the help and protection they need.

Our expansion plans look to cement important collaborations between universities and local authorities to ensure a steady stream of high-calibre social workers to the frontline. We now aim to fund further partnerships, new and existing, from 2018, subject to successful assessment of applications.

More information

Attachments

Links

  • Tender notice
  • Social Work Teaching Partnerships 2018 application guidance revised 8.12.2017

Additional text

Deadline for receipt of tender (time and date):

• Existing Teaching Partnership applications 21 January 2018 (midnight Sunday)

• New Teaching Partnership applications 4 February 2018 (midnight Sunday)

Return of applications:

Applications must be sent electronically via email to the Social Work Reform Unit at: Socialworkreform.SG@education.gsi.gov.uk quoting "TP expansion 2018 [TP Name / Region]" in the subject heading.

We may also publish FAQs and anonymised questions and answers on Contracts Finder to help partnerships with their applications. Questions deemed to be commercially sensitive will be answered separately by email

About the buyer

Contact name

Claire Langron

Address

Social Work Reform Unit 2 St Paul's Place 125 Norfolk Street
Sheffield
S1 2FJ
England

Email

Socialworkreform.SG@education.gsi.gov.uk