Dual placement (2-bed) residential children's home for Suffolk children in care aged 12-17 years including those aged 17 years

Credit risk rating

• a minimum Creditsafe credit reference agency score of 50 is required at the time of evaluation. If this threshold is not met (or a Creditsafe score cannot be obtained), the contracting authority may conduct a more detailed assessment - such as ratio analysis - using other financial information. If there are still significant concerns following a more detailed assessment, we will either:
• Deem the Tenderer to have failed the financial assessment, following which SCC will formally notify the Tenderer of their ineligibility and the rejection of their bid, or
• Undertake further financial assessment of the Tenderer in order to ascertain to our own satisfaction the financial and economic standing and robustness of the Tenderer and also (where applicable) the Parent/Holding Company and its subsidiaries.

Insurance

• already has, or can commit to obtain, the insurance requirements prior to the award of the contract.

UK General Data Protection Regulation

• You must not pose a Data Protection risk to the Council (that cannot be mitigated).

Experience of sub-contractor management (if applicable)

• demonstration of how You have previously maintained healthy supply chains with Your sub-contractor(s) (which may be the intended sub-contractor(s) for this procurement or any others used previously). The description should include the procedures you use to ensure performance of the contract.

Organisational standards

• The majority* of the Ofsted Registered Children's homes that you are currently operating must be rated as "Good" or above in their last inspection(s)**. Please note, these must relate to homes operated as you as the Owner and not the portfolio of any Top Company (as listed on Companies House).
• You must not be operating a children's home currently rated as "Inadequate" by Ofsted.
• The majority means at least 50% of the homes you are operating. If you operate an odd number of homes (e.g., 3) the 50% will be rounded up to the nearest whole number (e.g., 1.5 is rounded up to 2).

**Should you operate any children's homes currently rated as "Requires improvement to be good", please also provide copies of your post inspection action plan(s) for our consideration.

Health and Safety

• H&S Policy Statement together with an explanation of your H&S arrangements which should follow a recognised H&S Management system such as the HSE's HSG65 - Managing for Health & Safety. Please note, these should relate to Children's home services, and should cover incident reporting, staff, sub-contractors (if applicable), service users and the physical environment you will be operating in.

Regulation 44 inspection reports

• latest three consecutive copies of Regulation 44 inspection reports. The reports must all relate to the same home. Please ensure any personally identifiable information (relating to the children in care) is removed/redacted.

The reports must include:

• Evidence of effectively safeguarding children in their care and actions to promote their wellbeing
• Evidence the views of children are sought and taken into consideration
• Evidence of actions for service improvement are completed within timescales
• The name of the company/individual conducting the report along with the date it was completed.

Organisational capacity

• confirmation that you currently have the capacity to mobilise and implement the contract to start operating the home in line with the service specification no later than 1st March 2027.