Care and Support services - Short Breaks (Children)

This procurement will establish a flexible framework of providers, delivering care and support type services, for children with disabilities, throughout the Stirling Council area.

Care and support services will typically be for children and young people with more complex needs. Examples of such services include, but are not limited to:

• Care at Home (inc. support for Complex Care);
• Assisted Breaks;
• Emergency support in the home; or
• Other supports which meet our criteria and Service Specification.

Social Inclusion type services (including Specialist Play Schemes/ Befriending schemes/ Peer support groups etc) and Residential Short Breaks, for children with disabilities, are being procured separately and are not covered by this framework agreement.

Providers will be able to provide services throughout the Stirling Council area for children aged between 0 and 18 years, with the majority being of school age, and beyond if required.

Services will predominantly be provided on a 1 to 1 basis and, with the exception of assisted breaks, be delivered in the home of the supported child/ young person. Assisted breaks will offer alternatives to a dedicated residential short break facility (for example, by supporting a young person to have a break in a hotel or holiday cottage).

Through the creation of this framework, the Council aims to develop formal Purchaser/ Supplier relationships with local organisations who can provide care and support services for children and young people. This will promote choice in the type of providers and services available to children and young people and increase overall service capacity, underpinning the Self-Directed Support (Scotland) Act 2014.

All providers of a care and support service should be suitably registered with the Care Inspectorate. All staff or volunteers involved in the delivery of a service through the framework should have the appropriate PVG membership for working with children and young people in place.

Prospective providers are invited to download the documents associated to this Notice for further information on the application process and criteria for participation.

Those expressing an interest and satisfactorily passing Single Procurement Document (SPD) checks will be sent an application pack. This will include: an application form which allows a provider to detail the services they propose to offer; the terms and conditions of business; the full Service Specification; and Pricing Schedule documents.

The framework value is estimated, based on current demand and budget availability. This may increase, beyond the initial estimated value, in the event of growth in service demand and associated budget.

The framework will be established for a period of approx. 4 years and 8 months. The decision to reopen the framework to admit the application of new providers is at the discretion of Stirling Council. This is anticipated to be annually, or as need arises. The same selection criteria will be used at each opening of the framework to ensure fairness, transparency and equal treatment in the process.

Providers must pass all of the required selection criteria in order to be awarded to the framework agreement. There will be no restriction placed on the number of providers participating on the framework.

Participation on the framework does not guarantee future business between the Council and a Provider. However, it does mean that the Council has the means from which to buy services from a provider, should they be required. Additional information: Economic operators may be excluded from this competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.

This procedure utilises the 'light-touch' provisions described in regulations 74-76 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.