Advisory support for Social Investment

This Prior Information Notice (PIN) is to notify the market that Sheffield City Council plans to procure services for advisory support relating to a social investment programme. The PIN does not formally signify the beginning of any procurement and does not constitute a commitment by Sheffield City Council to undertake any procurement exercise. Notwithstanding this, in the event that Sheffield City Council decides to formally commence procurement pursuant to this PIN, which is likely to be early summer 2017, a separate Contract Notice will be issued. This PIN is also to notify the market that Sheffield City Council plans to host supplier events and market sounding meetings to further develop its understanding of the market for advisory support for its social investment programme. Public sector organisations in Sheffield are working together on a programme of work– Public Service Reform – to improve how public services work in the city. We are interested in delivering significant, sustained, financially secure changes to the nature of public service delivery, always in pursuit of better outcomes. We are focusing on reforms that will require the leadership of at least two public agencies in the city and that are associated with enabling people to lead long, healthy lives; education and employment; and empowering citizens to be responsible and independent. Alongside considering ‘customer-facing' changes that we may want to make, we are also ensuring we have the right enablers in place to ensure PSR can happen. These enablers include considering different models of investment. We are developing a proposal for a Sheffield Outcomes Fund, where by public agencies would raise a significant, one-off fund predominantly from within their own resources; potentially supplemented with other sources of capital; and i) publish a set of out comes that local public commissioners want to target; ii) a price (or range of prices) that local commissioners would be prepared to pay for those outcomes; iii) use this fund to stimulate the development, delivery, and financing–using external sources of finance, including social finance – of a set of innovative business cases in pursuit of those outcomes. We have already begun to develop a number of business case ideas internally in several policy areas. We are interested in understanding providers' interest in working with public organisations to develop these business cases, and therefore Sheffield City Council is organising a ‘soft market test event' to meet with organisations who may be interested in working with local commissioners to further develop these ideas and business cases, within the context of a Sheffield Outcomes Fund. The objective of advisory support would be to work with local commissioners and a) understand the work that has been done already; b) develop an analytically-rigorous understanding of the target cohort, evidence base and proposals about different interventions, and costs; c) provide policy-area specific advice about pricing arrangements for the Sheffield Outcomes Fund; d) model the impact of the proposed intervention and identify outcome measures; e) advise about other stakeholders' attitudes towards the work (central government, social investors) and therefore recommendations about routes to market; f) clarify the risks of the business cases and identify mitigations; and g) establish a timescale for implementation. We are looking for support to move ideas to a stage of readiness, to allow lead commissioners to then undertake detailed procurement and commercial work, and then implementation. The current set of policy areas that we are interested in developing further are early years; mental health; youth outcomes; primary care; adults with complex needs; early years and attachment. The Sheffield Outcomes Fund will likely target up to four different policy areas – and there may be multiple business cases for each policy area. We are interested in hearing from organisations who can develop business cases in all the planned areas of activity, and from providers who specialise in one or some of these areas. Part of the rationale for the Sheffield Outcomes Fund is to drive the sorts of reforms we are targeting, at scale. We are therefore aiming to develop business cases which are significant in scale and they should deliver improvements in direct outcomes for more than 1,000 people, and/or release net savings in excess of £10m.These criteria do not apply to the adults with complex needs policy area. Budget – our total budget for this work is between £100,000 and £180,000. This will be allocated amongst the organisations/ providers appointed to develop business cases in all the planned areas of activity. Two events will be held on June 19th in Sheffield, a morning event and an afternoon event. Please email requests to book a place at the above event via the messaging function available within the YORtender portal. This will assist in maintaining the audit trail for this requirement. Please indicate whether you have a preference for the morning or the afternoon event, and which policy areas you are interested in discussing (indicating one, some, or all of: mental health; youth outcomes; primary care; adults with complex needs; early years and attachment). Due to constraints on room space, a maximum of three representatives may attend from each organisation. The event will include an opportunity to meet the team behind the Sheffield Outcomes Fund; people involved in the development of business cases in each of the policy areas; Sheffield City Council’s Finance and Commercial Services team. There will also be an opportunity to introduce your organisation, your experience, including with particular reference to this work, and your interest in this opportunity.