Surrey Appropriate Adult Service (SAAVS)

Descriptions

Surrey County Council is recommissioning a high quality Appropriate Adult Service to safeguard the rights and welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults. The service will operate 24/7, 365 days a year, delivered by trained and qualified staff across multiple Surrey locations, including police custody suites, police stations, schools, council and community buildings, and other appropriate venues. The service model requires providers to deliver timely, responsive, and needs led support across core functions. • Appropriate Adult provision for children, young people, and vulnerable adults detained, interviewed, or otherwise engaged in police processes, ensuring their welfare and rights are upheld and they can participate effectively. • Age assessment support, where required, to assist professionals in determining age related safeguarding responsibilities and ensuring individuals receive suitable care and intervention. • Advocacy services to promote the voice, views, and best interests of service users, ensuring they are signposted to relevant local support services and connected with wider early help, social care, and youth justice pathways. Providers must demonstrate strong knowledge of Surrey's local support landscape to ensure effective coordination, referral, and continuity of care. The proposed service whilst independent should seek to promote safety, reduce offending, support independence, and ensure equitable access to additional services that improve wellbeing and long term outcomes for service users.

Engagement

The current contract for Surrey Appropriate Adult Services will expire in 2026, and it is therefore necessary to recommission this essential service to ensure continuity. As a result, Surrey County Council invites potential providers with an interest in delivering Appropriate Adult Services within Surrey, to participate in market engagement session. The purpose of this event will be providing an overview of the services that we are seeking to recommission, provide information around the proposed procurement route including an indicative high-level timeline and information on how to bid for contracts. We will be happy to answer any questions that you may have about the intended service, process and next steps. Registration details: Providers wishing to attend should reply via the Proactis e-tendering portal under the project "AW SAAVS Market Engagement" or via email to ania.wroblewska@surreycc.gov.uk by 16.00 on 03rd March 2026. The event will be held on 05th March 2026. This event will be delivered virtually via Microsoft Teams. If you wish to attend, please reply by providing following information: • Name of attendee(s) • Job title of attendee(s) • Organisation details, including address and contact details (email) Please note that attendance will be limited to 3 attendees per organisation. We will be providing more information, including the session agenda and meeting invites on or after 03rd March 2026. We look forward to seeing you at the event. Surrey County Council Early Help, Youths Justice and Adolescent Service An expression of interest in attending this Market Engagement Event does not constitute a commitment to participate in any future tender process, nor does it confer any preferential status on those Providers who attend. Participation in this event will not automatically grant eligibility to engage in any subsequent procurement exercise. Any procurement resulting from this event will be publicly advertised in accordance with legal requirements, and all organisations wishing to participate will need to submit a response to the advertisement once it is published. Providers who do not attend this Market Engagement Event will still be able to apply for the procurement in the future. Please note that this Market Engagement Event is not a formal stage of the procurement process, and attendance will not influence the evaluation process in any way