Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) - Resource and Funding Maximisation Market Engagement

Essex County Council ("the Council") would like to invite prospective providers to engage in a soft market test as part of the market engagement for this project.
The soft market test has been designed to establish the potential level of interest from organisations to deliver a Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) - Resource and Funding Maximisation service and to invite feedback on the proposed structure of this service to inform the Council's commissioning intentions.
Pending a review of the market feedback for this soft market test, the Council intends to commission a VCS Resource and Funding Maximisation Service offer which will work collaboratively with:
• A VCS Universal Standard Support Offer, providing digital business, compliance and learning resources.
• A VCS Community Participation partner, working strategically to develop a culture of participation across Essex and:
• Geographically based resources offering targeted and bespoke support across a range of outcomes.
The primary scope of the VCS Resource and Funding Maximisation service is predicated upon investing in a partner to enable a more strategic approach to maximising the funding and resources for the VCS. This partner will leverage financial and non-financial resources, strengthen the VCS capacity to secure funding, and support a strategic approach to distributing funding and non-financial resources.
Prospective bidders are advised that the Council will finalise the scope of the forthcoming procurement opportunity following the conclusion of the market engagement stage and reserves the right to amend the scope of this service accordingly.
For the avoidance of any further doubt, please be advised that any dates for the proposed procurement opportunity are provided for indicative purposes only and the Council reserves the right to amend this information following confirmation of the procurement timetable for this project. Full details of the structure of this procurement and associated timetable will be detailed within the corresponding Contract Notice in due course.
Please note that the deadline for the soft market test responses will be Monday 20th January 2025 at 12:00 noon and all responses must be submitted via the response functionality within ProContract.