Advocacy Helpline and 'Safety Net' Service

Concepts

• safety net' service
• technical support
• department for educations intention
• national advocacy helpline and 'safety net' service on behalf of the department
• national advocacy helpline and "safety net' service
• local advocacy support
• advocacy helpline
• national advocacy helpline
• improved national advocacy 'safety net
• local advocacy

Location

Description

It is the Department for Educations intention to undertake a procurement exercise to appoint a suitably experienced organisation to deliver The National Advocacy Helpline and 'safety net' service on behalf of the Department from 1st October 2023. The National Advocacy Helpline and "safety net' service will offer advice to looked after children and care leavers. The services are intended to signpost looked after children to local advocacy support or help those who have been denied local advocacy to make representations and pursue complaints. The service will be active in referring cases back to local authorities and progressing these until satisfaction. The service will continue to encourage local authorities to provide advocacy services in line with their statutory responsibilities, only stepping in where this proves unsuccessful. It is expected the improved national advocacy 'safety net' will also improve insight and analysis about callers to the service and the issues they raise and will gather evidence about the quality and coverage of local advocacy services. The service will use clear approaches for prioritising limited resources and engage looked after children who might otherwise be difficult to reach.

CPV Codes

• 71356300 - Technical support services
• 72253000 - Helpdesk and support services

Indicators

• Contract is suitable for SMEs.
• Contract is suitable for VCOs.

Other Information

To provide further information on the opportunity a market engagement webinar will be held on 24th November from 14:00 - 16:00. This will be an online event hosted through Microsoft Teams platform. This session will include a presentation at which representatives from the Department will provide information to potential suppliers about the proposed scope of the services and how we intend they will be procured. This will be followed by a Question-and-Answer session where potential suppliers will have the opportunity to ask questions of Departmental representatives. To register for the event, you will need to be registered as a supplier on the DfE Jaggaer eTendering portal, available at https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html Once registered the event will be accessible via the 'View Opportunities' link on the Homepage. Select the Opportunity Notice for 'Advocacy Helpline and 'Safety Net' Service Supplier Engagement Event' (SSQ 324) and this will take you directly to the registration page. The closing date for registering your interest of the market engagement event is 12:00 noon GMT on the 22nd November 2022. Please use the Jaggaer e-procurement system https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html to submit any questions you may have about the tendering procedure. Scope of the Service The national advocacy helpline and 'safety net' service will address the following objectives: a) To provide a national (England) advocacy advice telephone helpline to signpost children to local advocacy, and only provide direct advocacy support where this service is denied locally to looked after children or care leavers. b) Where advocacy continues to be denied, to support a looked after child or care leaver to pursue a complaint, likely in partnership with an Independent Reviewing Officer (unless concerns centre on the IRO service itself). c) To collect and maintain information about the range and availability of advocacy support provided to local children and young people based on calls to the service, contact with Local Authorities and through networks. Through this knowledge, the service will be able to support swiftly and effectively looked after children to obtain advocacy. d) To raise concerns, immediately, where there is a risk to a child's safety or welfare by referring to a local authority's child protection and safeguarding teams (and the police as appropriate). e) Where there are persistent concerns about the availability or quality of local advocacy services in a particular area, Ofsted should be informed, and reports made to the Department for Education as part of regular progress and monitoring arrangements.