Published date: 23 February 2023

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: 23 March 2023, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Technical support services - 71356300

  • Helpdesk and support services - 72253000

Location of contract

North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East, South West

Value of contract

£560,000

Procurement reference

tender_318404/1182720

Published date

23 February 2023

Closing date

23 March 2023

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

1 October 2023

Contract end date

30 September 2025

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (above threshold)

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

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

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes


Description

It is the Department for Educations intention to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint a suitably experienced organisation to deliver on behalf of the department a 2 year and 0 month contract from 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2025 to deliver an Advocacy 'Safety Net' Helpline Service offering advice to looked after children and care leavers.

The National Advocacy Helpline and "safety net' service will offer advice to looked after children and care leavers. The services are intended to signpost looked after children to local advocacy support or help those who have been denied local advocacy to make representations and pursue complaints. The service will be active in referring cases back to local authorities and progressing these until satisfaction.
The service will continue to encourage local authorities to provide advocacy services in line with their statutory responsibilities, only stepping in where this proves unsuccessful. It is expected the improved national advocacy 'safety net' will also improve insight and analysis about callers to the service and the issues they raise and will gather evidence about the quality and coverage of local advocacy services. The service will use clear approaches for prioritising limited resources and engage looked after children who might otherwise be difficult to reach.

To view the tender, you will need to be registered as a supplier on the DfE Jaggaer eTendering portal, available at https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html

The closing date for submitting your tender is 12:00 noon GMT on the 23rd March 2023.

Once registered the Tender will be accessible via the 'View Opportunities' link on the Homepage. Select the Opportunity Notice for 'Advocacy Helpline and 'Safety Net' Service ITT' (ITT 2083) and this will take you directly to the tender documents.

Please use the Jaggaer e-procurement system https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html to submit any questions you may have about the tendering procedure.


More information

Previous notice about this procurement

Advocacy Helpline and 'Safety Net' Service

  • Early engagement
  • Published 4 November 2022

Additional text

Scope of the Service
The national advocacy helpline and 'safety net' service will address the following objectives:
a) To provide a national (England) advocacy advice helpline and website to signpost children to local advocacy.
b) To provide direct advocacy support where advocacy is denied locally to looked after children or care leavers as well as supporting a looked after child or care leaver to pursue a complaint, likely in partnership with an Independent Reviewing Officer (unless concerns centre on the IRO service itself).
c) To collect and maintain information about the range and availability of advocacy support provided to local children and young people based on calls to the service, contact with Local Authorities and through networks. Through this knowledge, the service will be able to support swiftly and effectively looked after children to obtain advocacy.
d) To raise concerns, immediately, where there is a risk to a child's safety or welfare by referring to a local authority's child protection and safeguarding teams (and the police as appropriate).
e) Where there are persistent concerns about the availability or quality of local advocacy services in a particular area, Ofsted should be informed, and reports made to the Department for Education as part of regular progress and monitoring arrangements. Quarterly information around safeguarding referrals is also to be shared with Ofsted. Where a serious safeguarding incident occurs, Ofsted would need to be informed immediately.


About the buyer

Address

Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
England

Email

rachael6.davies@education.gov.uk