Delivery of Green Team as part of Welsh Government funded Vibrant and Viable Places Programme.

Descriptions

The notice at this stage is to gather market intelligence for the requirement detailed below. There is no guarantee that any competitive exercise will follow this request.Flintshire County Council is seeking to appoint a company to deliver an environmental traineeship project in Deeside as part of its Welsh Government Funded Vibrant and Viable Regeneration Programme. Deeside is made up of the towns of Connah’s Quay, Shotton, Queensferry and Garden City.The project is called the ‘Green Team’ and its aim is to provide young people aged 16-24, not in employment, education or training, with training and work experience.The 12 week programme (16 hours per week) provides trainees with the opportunity to deliver a variety of small scale environmental project (as agreed with Flintshire County Council) and at the same time gain work experience, learn new skills, gain qualifications, work as part of a team, including working alongside environmental professionals such as the council’s own rangers.The role of the appointed company would be to advertise the programme and recruit the trainees, assess and deliver the projects, undertake training and 1-2-1 guidance, produce regular reports, collect data for audit purposes and keep account of all project costs and outputs - invoicing the Council at agreed intervals.The Green Team programme provides a very intensive and rich experience for the trainees who are sign-posted from agencies such as Job Centre Plus and Careers Wales – and this working in partnership continues throughout the 12 weeks, as during the programme, trainees are helped to proceed to employment, education or further training. The requirement is for three 12 week phases of trainees with 20 trainees in each phase (60 in total). The timescale is mid-October to March 2017.Project RequirementsCompanies interested in delivering the Green Team project would be required to:1.Develop a 12 week programme that provides a package of core employability skill development through a mixture of group activity, 1-2-1 sessions, accredited training sessions and guidance and support with CV building and job search skills.2.Work with Flintshire County Council officers to compile a schedule of environmental schemes aimed at improving the appearance of green spaces in the Deeside area. Each scheme needs to be assessed in terms of deliverability, on-going maintenance, delivery costs and traineeship value.3.Work in liaison with Job Centre Plus, Careers Wales and other agencies, and undertake promotional activities to engage the required number of trainees for each tranche. It is likely that some open day events will need to take place in the Deeside area.4.Provide regular reports to Flintshire County Council staff on progress of both trainees and scheme delivery.5.Work in liaison with Flintshire County Council to publicise the programme and, if required hold celebratory events and host visits from Welsh Government officials.6.Maintain an audit trail of evidence for each scheme and young person’s experience. It is a Welsh Government funding requirement that the Council is able to demonstrate the achievements of the green team project – therefore accurate collation of output data is essential.7.Deliver accredited training – as each trainee needs to be provided with the opportunity to gain qualifications in several areas such as manual handling, first aid, health and safety, strimmer/brush cutter use and maintaining the Environment.8.Ensure all work is supervised appropriately and that any sub-contractors employed are properly insured, hold the necessary experience, undertake health and safety risk assessments and have appropriate procedures in place.