Portsmouth City Council Core Homeless Service Consultation

Portsmouth City Council (the Council) is undertaking a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise to inform the future procurement strategy for a new contract for the provision of housing supported services for single adults and couples without children, based within the City of Portsmouth. The Contract agreement will last for three years, plus extensions to be determined, and is intended to be used for the provision of housing related support to eligible homeless adults, funded by Portsmouth City Council.

To ensure effective engagement with organisations, and in the interests of transparency and fair and equal treatment set out within the Procurement Act 23, the Council has instigated this Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) process via issue of a PME Notice on the Central Government Find a Tender Service / Central Digital Platform.

The Council would like to consult organisations on the proposed scope, content of the contract, and specification. Consequently, we have produced this short consultation document and would welcome input into this process from interested parties. The deadline for receipt of responses is 17:00 on Tuesday 8th September 2026. Responses should be returned using the correspondence function on In-Tend. Portsmouth City Council Electronic Tendering Site - Home

Views of perspective tenderers are very important to us, will be taken into consideration, and may have a direct bearing on the final service model and tender documentation. The purpose of the consultation is to confirm that the facilities exist within the City to be able to deliver the required services.

Background

The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act (1977), Housing Act (1996), and the Homelessness Act (2002), placed statutory duties on local housing authorities to ensure that advice and assistance to individuals who are homeless or threatened with homelessness is available free of charge. More recently, the Homeless Reduction Act (2017) placed further emphasis on the need for housing authorities to focus on the prevention of homelessness by providing more client- focussed and personalised support. The Act introduced two further statutory duties to prevent and to relieve homelessness.

This Service forms part of the fulfilling of those duties by Portsmouth City Council's Housing Needs, Advice and Support service (HNAS). The specific aim of the Service is to provide emergency accommodation to those in need and to help maximise physical, intellectual, emotional and social potential and promote freedom of decision making for individuals consistent with their wellbeing, wishes and abilities.

The Council are conducting the PME exercise to:

• Provide a platform to share information on:

o Current scope & potential future demand

o Envisaged contracting strategy options

o Changing financial climate and associated pressures

o Key Council policies and future decision-making processes

• Review and understand:

o Market capacity and capability to deliver service requirements

o Suppliers current market presence

o Current contracting model market norms

o Market interest and preference in respect of potential delivery model options

o Existing pricing models

o Developments of industry accreditations, compliance and best practice

• To gauge interest from different types of suppliers, including both regional Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and large providers
• Inform the further development of the procurement strategy, process and programme
• Manage potential conflicts of interest early in the process
• Ensure compliance of any subsequent procurement process with the increased transparency obligations, risk assessment and conflict assessment requirements of the Procurement Act 2023

Proposed Scope

The Council proposes that the scope and detail of the Service will consist of three distinct service elements. At this stage, the Council's intention is that these elements will be combined into a single contract opportunity rather than being offered as separate lots. The three service elements are:

Service Element 1 - Accommodation-based support for service users presenting with a need for intensive support

Provision of intensive support to at least 35 single adults or couples without children, working with service users that may present with a wide range of support needs.

The Council is not making available any accommodation to the provider for the provision of this area of the Service. Instead, the provider must make its own direct arrangements for such accommodation to be available to the provider for the purpose of providing the services.

Service Element 2 - Accommodation-based support for service users presenting with a need for daytime support

Provision of housing-related support to at least 25 single adults or couples without children, working with service users that may present with a wide range of support needs.

The Council is not making available any accommodation to the provider for the provision of this area of the Service. Instead, the provider must make its own direct arrangements for such accommodation to be available to the provider for the purpose of providing the services.

Service Element 3 - Dispersed "floating" tenancy support for service users presenting with varying support needs

Provision of community floating support designed to help improve service users' abilities to live independently in the community; this is a short-term service comprising of floating housing and wellbeing related support provided to single adults and couples without children who may be at risk of homelessness.