Provision of Independent Advocacy & Independent Visitor Services

Partners from Bradford Children and Families Trust and the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council are working together to review and develop Independent Visiting and Advocacy Services for Bradford's Looked-After Children or Care Leavers. Legislation imposes a duty on local authorities to make arrangements for the provision of advocacy and to appoint an independent visitor for children and young people intending to make representations under the Children Act 1989 (Adoption and Children Act 2002). As well as requiring an Independent Visiting and Advocate service to meet its statutory obligations, Bradford Children’s and Families Trust wishes to work with the successful partner to adopt a casework approach which will utilise generic lessons learnt from advocates' work to develop more child-centred services. Children and young people eligible to receive a service are aged 0 to 21 years and up to 25 in the case of Care Leavers in full-time education The Trust BCFT is seeking to work with providers who can demonstrate continual improvements in value for money achieved by deploying efficient and innovative ways to meet the needs of the children and young people The programme of services is divided into 2 Lots, which are as follows: • Lot 1: Independent Advocacy for Looked After Children • Lot 2: Independent Visitor Services The contracts will commence from 1st April 2026, for an initial period of 2 years, with 1 option to extend by up to 12 months.