National Fast Track to Child and Family Social Work Programme

Description

The purpose of this PIN is to initiate market consultation and is not being used as a call for competition. The PIN is intended to: 1. Raise awareness with the market of a potential future procurement process and to enable time for organisations to begin early discussions with the Department and each other as to how they may be able to deliver any future contract. 2. Inform the market that the Department will be undertaking market consultation activity during January and February 2022, to gather information about the supply market; to explore potential delivery models and associated benefits of those models; and to inform its understanding of the risks and issues relevant to managing transition to, and mobilisation of, any new service arrangements. 3. Inform the market that the services fall within the scope of Part 7 (Social and Other Specific Services) of Chapter 3 of the Public Procurement Regulations 2015, the so called "light touch regime" and that the Department will utilise the flexibilities afforded by Regulation 76(1) (Principles of awarding contracts), in determining the procurement procedure to be applied. The Department has not yet determined the detail of that form of procurement procedure but anticipates that it may include negotiation with tenderers. The procurement process will be set out in full in the procurement documents, in due course. The Department has held a series of events during January and February 2022. Event 1 The first of these events to be held virtually on Thursday 27 January 2022 and will be split into two parts, a morning session (10:30-12:00) and an afternoon session (13:00-15:00). The morning session will be a plenary session at which representatives from the contracting authority will provide detailed information to potential suppliers about the proposed scope of the services and how we intend they will be procured. The afternoon session will give potential suppliers an opportunity to discuss, in groups, these proposals with DfE representatives and other interested organisations in order to identify the strengths and weakness of these plans from a Market perspective. Event 2 The second set of events will be held between Wednesday 2 February and Wednesday 9 February 2022. These will consist of a series of commercial in confidence 1:1 virtual meetings between interested suppliers and the Department. They will give an opportunity to discuss in more depth aspects of the National Fast Track Child & Family Social Work Programme that may be unclear and highlight what aspects of the procurement are most attractive. Links to book onto all of these events are available later in this notice. Spaces for all events will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis, but we intend to share the outcomes from these sessions with all potential suppliers following the conclusion of the consultation period. Additional information: This opportunity has been extended until 9th May 2022 to allow suppliers to access all published documents during this time, ask questions to the department via the discussion forum and for the department to communicate broadcast messages on further updates to the procurement, including but not limited to an FAQs document and a refined specification. The department wants to work with suppliers(s) who will attract and train talented graduates to become Child and Family Social Workers. We want to focus on further development of the curriculum to meet the needs of children and families; improve retention of newly qualified social workers from the programme; and increase the reach of the programme across all local authorities. A full specification of the services required will be published as part of the procurement documents at SQ stage. Key elements of the services to be provided are as follows: - Attraction & Promotion of the Scheme - Candidate Recruitment and Selection - Development and delivery of Child and Family Social Worker Training & Qualification - Participant Retention and Ongoing Support - Local Authority Recruitment and Placements - Contractor Management Information - Programme Evaluation - Continuous Improvement - Data Management and Security - Contractor Performance Management - Implementation and Resourcing - Demobilisation and Exit Planning The Fast Track to Child & Family Social Work Programme is a fast-track training scheme for child and family social workers that delivers an accelerated training pathway for outstanding candidates. At this stage, interested market suppliers should ensure they are registered on the Department's e-procurement solution (Jaggaer). The Department will engage with the market and administer any procurement via Jaggaer. Jaggaer registration information can be found at https://education.app.jaggaer.com