II.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS code:
UKI
II.2.4) Description of the procurement
Over the last 18 months, the Council has been engaging with children and young people, the community and local youth service providers to design a new Young Islington youth offer which will:
• Identify, target and reach more vulnerable young people.
• Reach into different communities to challenge, reduce and eliminate persistent inequality.
• Be more flexible and responsive to need – mobilising resources around key ‘hotspot’ areas as necessary.
• Harness the collective resources of services and communities across Islington.
The new model is based on a strong youth work leadership function, providing support and stimulus for high quality, inclusive youth work delivery across the borough of Islington
The council is looking for suitable organisations to manage the operation of the youth offer, summer programme and emotional wellbeing services, alongside a separately funded Direct Access Social Prescribing Service. Delivery will be centred on the Lift and Rose Bowl youth spaces.
This is a replacement procurement exercise for the contract previously advertised as 2122-0032 Young Islington – universal youth work offer, Lot 2: Young Islington: Lift and Rose Bowl, Summerversity and the Emotional Wellbeing Service, and Lot 4: Youth Islington: Direct Access Prescribing Service.
The requirement
The council is seeking a provider who can:
Service 1: Deliver a youth work offer from Lift and Rose Bowl
• Develop, deliver and host a high quality, innovative and interconnected programme of youth work activities, spaces and multi-agency support services for young people's development.
• Provide significant additional social value, e.g. to support young people’s employment.
• Work closely with the other providers and three locality networks to shape and support the delivery of high quality youth work across the borough, in line with the identified needs.
• Develop a close working relationship with Targeted Youth Support (TYS) and other Children’s Services departments to ensure that disengaged and more at risk young people receive the support they need at Lift and Rose Bowl.
• Be an ‘outward facing’ provision, which assertively seeks to engage young people who have not previously been reached by the universal youth work offer, through working with locality networks and other community and grassroots groups.
• Deliver the Summerversity, Launchpad and Emotional Wellbeing Services.
Service 2: Deliver a social prescribing offer for young people linked to the youth work offer
• Build on the learnings from the pilot phase of the service, identify features of an effective social prescribing model to meet the wellbeing needs of young people within the 11-25 age range, intervening at the earliest point, and focusing on young people living with long-term or physical health conditions and/or Special Educational Needs.
• Adopt a flexible approach to targeting the service according to the recognised need locally. This may involve expanding or altering referral partners as the service develops.
• Signpost referrals from clinical mental health services appropriately and provide for unmet need through a non-clinical pathway focused around social and emotional wellness and prevention of mental ill-health.
• Continue to promote understanding and support for social prescribing approaches to mild to moderate mental health needs among referring organisations, such as the importance of wellbeing conversations.
• Embed the service within the community, including informing and participating in the Locality Youth Networks to work collaboratively with other stakeholders.
TUPE [Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations]
Potential providers must be aware that TUPE may or may not apply to this service. Further details will be available in the invitation to tender.
Contract Period
Service 1: Initial contract term is up to 60 months, from an estimated start date of Saturday 1 January 2022, with the option to extend for a further two (2) periods of up to 12 months each (12 plus 12) subject to performance and the council’s financial position.
Service 2: Initial contract term is 12 months, with six (6) optional extensions each of a further 12 months
Contract Budget
Service 1: Total annual contract budget is £590,000, equating to a total maximum contract budget of £4,130,000 should all extensions be implemented.
Service 2: Total annual contract budget is £70,000. Funding is currently secured until 31 January 2023 (the first year of service delivery), with the expectation to extend a further six (6) x 12 months, subject to funding availability. This equates to a maximum contract budget of £490,000 should all extensions be implemented.
There is a maximum fixed budget for this service of £590,000 plus £70,000 per annum. Any bids over this amount will be disqualified.
Award criteria
The contract will be awarded to the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations. MEAT for this contract is quality 70% and cost 30%. Further details will be provided in the invitation to tender.
This is a procurement under Section 7 Social and Other Specific Services of Part 2 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Under Regulation 76 the Council is free to establish a procedure, provided that procedure is sufficient to ensure compliance with the principles of transparency and equal treatment of economic operators (service providers) and is initiated by a contract notice. However what the Council has designed is essentially the Open Procedure but with the potential for negotiation at the end, similar to the Competitive procedure with negotiation. The Open Procedure means that all bidders who successfully express an interest will automatically be invited to tender and have access to the tender documents. Those who submit a tender and meet the minimum requirements (by answering Selection questions) will have their full tender, method statements and pricing evaluated. The council reserves the right to award the contract on the basis of initial tenders without negotiation, and also not to make an award of contract at all.
II.2.5) Award criteria
Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents
II.2.7) Duration of the contract, framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system
Duration in months: 84
This contract is subject to renewal: No
II.2.9) Information about the limits on the number of candidates to be invited
II.2.10) Information about variants
Variants will be accepted:
No
II.2.11) Information about options
Options:
No
II.2.13) Information about European Union funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds:
No