Grant Funding - Expression of Interest - Tackling Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service for Professionals

Contract summary

Industry

• Other services - 98390000

Location of contract

England

Procurement reference

C22013-EOI

Published date

11 October 2021

Closing date

18 October 2021

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

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Description

The Home Office is seeking bids for grant funding relating to a Tackling Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service for Professionals.
A total funding envelope of up to £400k is available for the provision of a Harmful Sexual Behaviour (HSB) Support Service for Professionals. Funding will pilot a service to deliver England-wide targeted support to safeguarding professionals on tackling HSB (working with children and young people who are both displaying these behaviours and affected by it), as well as collating evidence & intelligence of the challenges local partners are facing, in order to inform future policy decisions.
The pilot will be targeted at designated safeguarding leads within primary and secondary schools and alternative provision. Support will also be available to early years provision, colleges and wider safeguarding professionals (including police, social workers and health practitioners). Support will be offered regarding specific incidents of HSB and also for strategic/systemic questions. The support provision will provide initial support and signpost to existing resources and advice.
Duration
The period of the grant funding will be from January 2022 to March 2022, with potential to extend into next financial year if funding is agreed. The provider(s) must have existing capacity to deliver the service by no later than January 2022 to ensure the maximum duration for the service to run to inform the evidence base on harmful sexual behaviour.
To ensure value for money, a charge per contact payment plan will be in place with a clear stipulation within the funding agreement regarding the minimum staffing requirement over the lifetime of the support service.
Objectives:
This support service will help to build the evidence base and improve practice responses across those areas seeking support. The support service will help to deliver the following objectives:
- Harmful sexual behaviour will be better identified by professionals
- Young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour will receive earlier support and help to respond to underlying issues/trauma, which will be trauma-informed and joined up across safeguarding agencies
- Those impacted by / experiencing harmful sexual behaviour will receive earlier support which will also be trauma informed and joined up across safeguarding agencies.
- Over the longer term, fewer incidents of harmful sexual behaviour in schools and LA areas, with fewer young people affected by it
- Professionals gain confidence in dealing with incidents of HSB
- Implementation of whole-system, trauma informed responses to HSB to ensure a change in the culture in how harmful sexual behaviour is perceived and responded to,
- Learning gathered on the sorts of issues and incidents local professionals particularly struggle with when responding to HSB, to inform future policy development
- Learning gathered on what a 'best practice' whole-system response to HSB looks like, which can be collated and shared nationally.

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More information

Additional text

Evaluation:
During the next stage (competition stage), bids will go through a selection process run by the CSA Early Intervention and Prevention team in conjunction with Home Office Commercial. Bids will be reviewed by a Home Office and DfE panel with the relevant expertise in both commercial and compliance policy and CSA prevention policy. Bids will be evaluated against three critical success factors: Time, Cost and Quality.
Bids can be either singular or in collaboration but must be put forward by a lead who can be the legal entity/accountable body on behalf of the partnership.
Bids will be assessed against the following criteria:
• Provider ability to deliver the service from January 2022.
• Subject matter expertise in responding to harmful sexual behaviour in a trauma informed manner.
• Description of the innovative and/or evidence-based support they will be piloting
• Identified target audience (of professionals) with clear insight evidencing why the approach will be effective for this audience.
• Clear timeframe for delivery.
• Clear plans for evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of the intervention.
• Clear plan for disseminating what is learned from the evaluation.
• Description of how evaluation of the activity will be used to inform future activity, for example could the activity be scaled up and expanded.
• Demonstration of how value for money will be achieved.
This will be evidenced in a project delivery plan accompanied by the bid.


How to respond:
Organisation(s) interested in making a bid are required to register their interest by 18 October by e-mailing the point of contact in this notice, providing:
• your name
• contact details
• name of your organisation
The e-mail Subject Line should be: HSB 2021/22
Failure to register your organisation's interest by the closing date for this EOI may prohibit your organisation from submitting a bid at competition stage, however please do note the requirements set out above, particularly in terms of expertise and ability to deliver to tight timescales before confirming your interest.

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About the buyer

Contact name

Daren Mills

Address

2 Marsham Street
LONDON
SW1P4DF
England

Email

Daren.Mills6@homeoffice.gov.uk