Tender for 16+ Leaving Care Services Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) — Placements North West.

Descriptions

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and Placements North West are committed to the provision of high quality services to support 16+ care leavers.Placements Northwest is a regional children's service project which assists the 22 local authorities in the Northwest making out of authority placements. These placements cover four board areas: Education, Fostering, Leaving Care and Residential sectors.All projects and actions of Placements Northwest are governed by the steering group. Other members of the group include strategic leads from Local Authority Children Services Department, Partnership North West (SEN) and the Strategic Health Authority.Tameside MBC invite expressions of interest in the above tender previously advertised in OJEU since 2.6.2015.This is a contract for Social and Other Specific Services under Section 7 of the Regulations which will take the form of a DPS type arrangement.The Level of Service:— To offer a Leaving Care/Independent Living Service for looked-after young people where they can be supported to acquire necessary skills in preparation for living independently, experiment safely with their increasing freedom and develop responsibilities associated with adulthood, whilst still having the appropriate level of support from an appropriately experienced and qualified staff team.— The service will enable young people, via the support delivered, to move on from a permanent, full-time care setting and increase the likelihood of them maintaining future accommodation resources.This contract is for the provision of Leaving Care/Independent Living Placements across three distinct Service Categories:Service Category/LotSemi Independence/Group Living:Service offering a group living communal environment with staff on site to deliver programmes of support, dependant on individual needs, to enable young people to progress towards living in their own accommodation.Floating Support with Accommodation:Community based accommodation services with floating resettlement support, sourced within the private rental market and supported by one to one staffing of varying levels, to achieve the aim of the young person moving to independence.Floating Support:Community based services providing floating/resettlement support to enable young people to live semi independently in their own accommodation.Each Service Category acts as an individual ‘lot’ for the purposes of this tender.Providers can bid for any one or combination of the Service Categories or Lots.It is the responsibility of each Provider to determine which Service Category/Lot to select for their service. Any service which does not meet the minimum service criteria listed in the Core Cost Specifications will be rejected.The DPS is for new placements only and these will be made on a ‘call-off’ basis.The lead authority for this procurement exercise is Tameside MBC. Where there is mention of ‘the Council’ this means Tameside Council, establishing this DPS Agreement by or on behalf of only the participating Local Authorities listed below who will be using the contract from its commencement date with the exception of those local authorities indicated with a ‘*. Authorities indicated by a ‘*’ will not operate the contract at launch but will have the opportunity to join the contract at a later date. Blackburn with Darwen CouncilBlackpool Council*Bolton Metropolitan Borough CouncilBury Metropolitan Borough CouncilCheshire East CouncilCheshire West and Chester CouncilCumbria County Council*Halton Borough CouncilKnowsley Metropolitan Borough CouncilLancashire County CouncilLiverpool City CouncilManchester City CouncilOldham Metropolitan Borough Council*Rochdale Metropolitan Borough CouncilSalford City CouncilSefton CouncilSt Helens CouncilStockport Metropolitan Borough CouncilTameside Metropolitan Borough CouncilTrafford CouncilWarrington Borough CouncilWigan Metropolitan Borough CouncilWirral Metropolitan Borough CouncilLocation of ServiceThe contract is divided into 3 geographical zones. Providers can bid into as many, or as few, zones as they wish as long as they can meet the requirements for participation set out below:Semi Independence/Group Living:To bid for a specific geographic zone, there must be a semi-independent/group living service physically located within that zone or within 10 miles of the border of participating authorities.Example: A group living service based within Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside could only bid for Zone 1: Greater ManchesterFloating Support with Accommodation:To bid for a specific geographical zone a service must be able to secure property on a bespoke basis within that zone and provide support, and management of that support.Floating Support:To bid for a specific geographical zone a service must be able provide support, and management of that supportParticipating local authorities will have access to all 3 zones of the contract, and will refer to the zone (or zones) based on where the young person should live. In most instances young people are placed in or close to their home local authority, but there is often need to place further afield.Administratively, access to the DPS will be via three ‘rounds’ a year, each ‘round’. A ‘round’ consists of:— A period every 4th month where evaluation of submissions will be undertaken— Award of any contracts and inclusion on the DPS or— Feedback to providers whose submission does not meet the 60 % minimum performance thresholdEvaluation of submissions will be by a series of panels (by quality themes/criteria), including officers representative of the participating local authorities and may include representatives from leaving care teams, commissioning teams and young people/former care leavers.Key dates for this first ‘round’:— Tender opens — 4.6.2015— Evaluation commences — August 2015— Contract award — Early September 2015— Placements North West and Tameside MBC are expecting a considerable number of submissions in this first ‘round’ of the DPS with numbers tailing off thereafter. Should you initially fail to meet the quality thresholds (see below); you will be able to re-submit completed documentation at any time via The Chest, mindful that your submission will be re-evaluated via the planned evaluation panel meetings in the next planned ‘round’.Evaluation periods for the next three rounds are scheduled for:— November 2015— March 2016— July 2016(Please note these may be subject to change).The DPS will run from 1 October through to 30.9.2017, 2 years hence, with a view to it being reviewed and potentially extended for an additional year (and then a further 12 months after that; up to 4 years in total i.e. ending 30.9.2019).Mini competitionsOnce on the DPS, individual contracts to support a young person will be tendered for by mini competition:— Undertaken electronically via email.— Each local authority will run their own mini competition.— Based on your ability to demonstrate you can provide the support required in the young person’s support plan and on price.— The local authority in question will then issue the successful provider an Individual Placement Agreement (IPA).The Procurement process has given due regard to the Social Value Act 2012 in consideration of the economic, social and environmental benefits of the delivery of this service.