New Work Connections - Provision of a Service to Support Women into Employment (Voluntary OJEU Notic

Descriptions

The New Work Connections Project is an ESF Convergence funded project, covering the four local authority areas of Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Gwynedd. It intends to provide intensive support and guidance to people, who are both economically inactive and facing major disadvantages in their lives, with regard to pursuing training and employment opportunities. The sponsors of the project are the four Social Services Departments from these local authorities. Through existing functions, we provide help and support to the most excluded groups of people, but we wish to do more to help people with pursuing training and employment. We recognise that the lives of many of our service users can be transformed when they can become engaged in training and/or employment. The participants of this project will often need intensive help and support of a specialist nature to enable them to reach their full potential. The New Work Connections Project intends to provide participants, with far greater opportunities to attain economic independence. Ultimate goals and outcomes will differ between individuals, but the project will strive to allow everybody the opportunity to reach their own potential and to fully contribute to their communities.With regard to the delivery of the project in Denbighshire, funding has been obtained to procure services which help women, who face particular barriers in the employment market, to pursue appropriate training and employment opportunities. This funding will be for a period of nearly 4 years.This project element aims to develop a central resource which would reach women across Denbighshire . With the help of other agencies,the aim is to provide a coordinated approach to improve the social and economic development of women .The aim is to develop a resource for women which will provide access to information, training, employment advice, welfare support, health and wellbeing activities. It will ultimately aim to have a positive impact on the lives of women. It is envisaged that the location of the resource will be in Rhyl. This is identified as an area of great need which has been identified as a strategic regeneration area by the Welsh Assembly Government. However, an important part of this project element will be to reach out to women who live in rural areas.2.TARGET CLIENT GROUPThe target groups for this project primarily include women who are not amongst the key target groups for other ESF funded projects. Other projects, for example, have already been established with either lone parents or carers as their main target groups . The main target groups for this project are therefore women:•who have a disability •who have a sensory impairment •who have experienced ongoing health problems •who are aged 50 and over •who have mental health needs•who have endured traumatic experiences and who are in need of intensive support to move on to employment •who for various reasons have experienced major disadvantage in their lives and are lacking in confidence •who have experienced difficulty in becoming accepted for employment • young women who are not in education , employment or training With regard to other groups of women who might be a primary target group for other projects, there will be some situations in which this project, after negotiation with a project which has primary responsibility for meeting particular needs, will provide additional support. Providers should note that this project is subject to ESF Grant Funding which requires the successful provider to provide an element of match funding for the project. This is anticipated to be in the region of 50% of the project cost. The total project cost is anticipated to be in the region of £1,498,612.00 over the lifetime of the agreement.The service will be provided across the whole of Denbighshire which includes semi rural and rural areas where there will be an expectation to provide the service in the medium of Welsh. Denbighshire County Council wishes to work with suitably qualified and experienced organisations to provide support, training and employment opportunities for women who face barriers to access such opportunities.This is a Voluntary OJEU notice as the services required to deliver this project are classed as a "Part B" service as recognised under EU procurement legislation and the procurement process will follow the principles of this legislation.