The Provision of a Young Persons Engagement Service (Part of the ESF Ways to Work Programme)

St Helens Council (“the Council”) is seeking to procure an Engagement Service.
The purpose of this service is to increase the engagement through information, advice, guidance and coaching of disengaged and Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) young people from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds who require additional support to access learning and employment opportunities. Target cohorts include but are not limited to those who are care leavers, teenage parents, young offenders or those who have learning difficulties and / or disabilities. The service will reflect localised needs and requirements and will work closely with other local authority teams and other agencies supporting these young people.

The primary focus of this service will be support to key vulnerable groups (defined in section 2) to ensure that those young people who are furthest from the labour market and face significant barriers in being able to access education, training and employment are able to make informed choices about their education, employment or training options based on all available impartial information.

This specification will be part of a range of support services that will enable the Council to provide key ongoing support to vulnerable young people, below the age of 19 and relevant young adults (i.e. those aged 19 and over but under 25 with learning difficulties and/or disabilities). The National Careers Service along with other existing engagement initiatives such as the Youth Contract and New Horizons will function as a support not duplication to this engagement service.
This service is intended to be an integral part of the Ways To Work programme, which is part-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). Ways To Work will be a comprehensive employment support programme delivered in St Helens and across all boroughs in the Liverpool City Region. It will be a local intelligence-driven, comprehensive and integrated programme for young people and adults, designed to improve personal resilience and progress to sustainable employment. Incorporating the existing successful Youth Employment Gateway (YEG), workless and inactive people, including those furthest from the labour market will access a suite of individually tailored products which will add value to mainstream provision, respond to employer needs and yield better outcomes. High quality Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG), transitional employment (ILMs), and skills development are essential components of the programme offer, anchored by needs-led assessment, conducted by experienced mentors in this flexible support system. The successful provider will be expected to operate within this ESF-funded environment, and, with due support from the Council, ensure its systems are in line with ESF/YEI eligibility.

The Council is seeking to procure a supplier in accordance with the open procedure as set out in The Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Part 2, Section 3, Regulation 27 (the “Regulations”). The Council is using the open procedure due to its requirement for the procurement of a supplier to successfully deliver the Programme. The Programme will utilise funding from European Union and Youth Employment Initiative via the St Helens Ways to Work ESF Programme. All interested suppliers can submit a tender response and all bidders who meet the selection criteria set out in the Suitability Questionnaire will then proceed to the evaluation stage of the process
The Invitation To Tender (“ITT”) sets out the instructions for the tender process and the tender evaluation criteria for the ITT stage of the procurement process.
The ITT has been produced to allow the Council to evaluate the most economically advantageous tender from the view of the Council from the organisations who respond to the OJEU Contract Notice. The Council will score each Bidder’s response against the criteria set out in the ITT
When the evaluation process has been completed, the Council will inform all Bidders of its decision to award the contract, the reasons for the decision and details of the mandatory standstill period in accordance with Regulation 87 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015
No tender documents will be sent to you – you need to navigate to the “my opportunities” section and download the documents from the Chest website.
If you have any questions regarding this opportunity – please post them on the “discussions” facility on the Chest. Messages sent outside of the Chest will not be responded to.
ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE SENT THROUGH THE CHEST. Submissions sent via any other method will not be accepted.
Please ensure that you leave enough time to upload your documents before the closing date/time, as late submissions may not be accepted.