Con_16490 Step Up to Social Work Programme (Cohort 8) – Administration Solution

The Step Up to Social Work training programme (“Step-Up”) as delivered by Local Authorities (“LAs”) in partnership with local Higher Education Institutions (“HEIs”) was designed to deliver a consistent supply of high-quality social workers into the sector from wide ranging backgrounds. The rationale for Step-Up was, and continues to be, to expand the recruitment pool for social work while addressing deficiency in workforce quality and sufficiency. The Step-Up programme requires a fully managed service to be provided by the supplier to LAs within their Regional Partnerships. A summary of the required services is set out below:

• Design, supply and hosting of an IT-based application data capture system to coordinate the assessment process and assessment centres across England;
• Administrative support to Regional Partnerships, to assess application pool of c.8,000 – 10,000 applicants;
• Staffing function at Regional Partnership assessment centres to recruit 700 trainees for the eighth cohort;
• Quality assurance function on applications at all stages of the process;
• Targeted Recruitment advice and support to minimise and remove any inequitable barriers candidates may face. Additional information: Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents