CS5385 Children' Rights Advocacy Service

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets (Tower Hamlets) is seeking to commission organisation(s) with the specialist skills and resources to provide a person-centred independent Children’s Rights Advocacy Service (CRAS) offering advice and support for all of our Looked After Children and Care Leavers (including those with a disability) to help empower them to reach their potential and uphold their human rights.

The Service consists out of two service lots, Advocacy and Return Home Interviews, for which organisations are encouraged to bid, either for one or both of the service lots.

Service Lot 1:
The Advocacy service lot will offer children and young people (CYP) independent and confidential advice, information and representation, while ensuring CYP have their wishes and feelings heard and views responded to appropriately.

The Service will:
• Ensure up to 90 Looked After Children (LAC) & Care Leavers (including Children with Disabilities (CWD)) per year will have access to an independent advocacy worker to support their needs and empower them to help reach their full potential, including making complaints.
• Conduct up to 25 exit interviews with Care Leavers annually resulting in a report that will be submitted to Tower Hamlets’ Through Care Service.

Service Lot 2:
The Return Home Interview (RHI) service lot will offer independent Return Interviews for Looked After Children who go missing from their placement. Independent return interviews provide an opportunity to speak to the child in confidence to ascertain the factors that led to the child going missing and any risks they may have been exposed to while missing. This will enable Tower Hamlets to implement measures to prevent reoccurrence and to safeguard the child and young person from harm.

The Service will:
• Ensure all Looked After Children who go missing will be offered an independent Return Interview
• Ensure interviews are carried out as soon as possible once the missing child or young person has been located, aiming to meet with the child or young person within 72 hours of receiving a referral
• Be available 7 days a week
• Ensure to offer 4x half day training and awareness raising sessions with Tower Hamlets’ staff per annum
Commencement date and duration of the contract
The successful bidder(s) will commence the new service contract(s) on the 1st of July 2019. The service is to be delivered for 36 months.

Budget
The estimated annual value for the service lots are:
• Service Lot 1: Advocacy = £128,252
• Service Lot 2: Return Home Interviews (RHI) = £50,000
• Total per annum = £178,252

Please note that this reflects the maximum available budget for the service, therefore tenders which exceed this figure will not be considered.

A supplier briefing will take place on Friday 25th January 2019 at 2:00 pm and is expected to last approximately one hour.

Location:
Room AJH204
2nd Floor
Albert Jacobs House
62 Roman Road
London
E2 0PG

Please contact Karlijn.Tummers@towerhamlets.gov.uk for further information and to register for the event by Monday 21st January 2019


Additional Information:
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) is seeking expressions of interest from interested organisations for the above services and / or goods.

Organisations wishing to express their interest are requested to register on the London Tenders Portal (www.londontenders.org) where the opportunity documentation will be available for download. You will be required to complete an online questionnaire.
Organisations must ensure that access to the system is available to their representatives dealing with the contract and that this contact is updated as and when required.
The council will not be liable for the lack of delegated access within the organisation and will not send any documentation regarding the opportunity, which shall be exclusively available through the portal.

Suppliers are responsible for allowing sufficient time to submit their Application. The Council accepts no liability whatsoever for tenders that are not submitted due to internet connectivity issues, transmission delays or errors.