CP2242-22 - Homelessness Prevention, Young people's housing-related support for 16/17 year olds and care leavers (Flexible Purchasing System)

Devon County Council Children's Services commissions services to support young people at risk of homelessness who are age 16/17, or who are care leavers to Devon County Council age 18-25. This includes supported accommodation and floating support to young people who require it to prevent them from becoming homeless. Devon County Council commissions the support element of the contract, and the housing costs are funded via housing benefit, or rent contributions from the young person if they are not eligible for housing benefit. This meets our responsibilities to young people as Children in Need or Care Leavers under:

• The Children's Act 1989
• The Children Leaving Care Act 2000
• The Children and Social Work Act 2017
• The Statutory Guidance on the Provision of Accommodation for 16 and 17 Year Old Young People at Risk of Homelessness.

It also helps housing partners to meet their commitments to these groups under:

• The Homelessness (Priority Need of Accommodation) Devon County Council Children's Services commissions services to support young people at risk of homelessness who are age 16/17, or who are care leavers to Devon County Council age 18-25. This includes supported accommodation and floating support to young people who require it to prevent them from becoming homeless. Devon County Council commissions the support element of the contract, and the housing costs are funded via housing benefit, or rent contributions from the young person if they are not eligible for housing benefit. This meets our responsibilities to young people as Children in Need or Care Leavers under:
• The Children's Act 1989
• The Children Leaving Care Act 2000
• The Children and Social Work Act 2017
• The Statutory Guidance on the Provision of Accommodation for 16 and 17 Year Old Young People at Risk of Homelessness.

It also helps housing partners to meet their commitments to these groups under:

• The Homelessness (Priority Need of Accommodation) order 2002
• The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017

There will be a tenderer event held via Microsoft Teams on 26th September at 10am in relation to this tender. The event will be focusing on the Tender Process and will explain the ITT and the other documents as well as useful information to enable Tenderers to be 'tender ready'. There will be an overview of the service requirement from commissioners of the service and there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the event. Whilst every endeavour will be made to answer questions at this event, it may be necessary to respond at a later date. The presentations and questions and answers given will be made available via ProContract. To ensure that this event is of the most benefit, tendering organisations are encouraged to ensure that persons attending are the most appropriate i.e. persons who will be constructing and making decisions about any tender submitted. In order to book a place, please e-mail oliver.reed@devon.gov.uk for the meeting invite to be sent to you.

Additional information:

This is to set up a flexible purchasing system(FPS) for the provision of services detailed in Section 3.Description. There will be 1 Lot covering all services with subsequent mini competitions called off this FPS system by Devon County Council and it's partner authorities.

Included in the initial tender process are three of these mini competitions for Block Contracts under the FPS which are detailed below. Bids are invited from any organisation which wishes to be part of the FPS even if they do not want to bid for any of the included 3 Blocks. All providers who are successful in joining the FPS will have the opportunity to take part in future mini competitions.

Block Contract 1 Young People's Supported Accommodation - Core Block Contract. This sets out the requirements to deliver support hours to 16/17 year olds and Care Leavers in Devon who are in need of supported accommodation and/or housing-related support to prevent homelessness or becoming at risk of homelessness. This includes support hours for young people living in supported accommodation, as well as some floating support for young people who require support as part of moving on from supported accommodation, or while preparing to access supported accommodation.

Block Contract 2 - Emergency Beds. This sets out the requirements to deliver emergency beds to 16/17 year olds and Care Leavers in Devon who are in need of safe and suitable temporary accommodation and support due to an accommodation breakdown.

Block Contract 3 - Young Parents Accommodation. This sets out the requirements to deliver support hours to 16/17 year olds and Care Leavers in Devon who are pregnant, young parents and/or wishing to live together as a couple and are in need of supported accommodation and/or housing-related support to prevent homelessness or becoming at risk of homelessness. This includes support hours for young people living in supported accommodation, as well as some floating support for young people who require support as part of moving on from supported accommodation, or while preparing to access supported accommodation.

Further details for how to apply for the FPS and/or apply for the mini competitions are contained in the Invitation To Tender documents.