Birth Family Support and Counselling Service in Adoption, Regional Origins Tracing Service and Advice, Support, Signposting and Advocacy Service for Adults in Adoption

HSC wish to inform the market that they are planning to procure the provision of a Birth Family Support and Counselling Service in Adoption, Regional Origins Tracing Service and Advice, Support, Signposting and Advocacy Service for Adults in Adoption.

• Independent Birth Family Support and Counselling Service - this service is for birth parents and other birth family members including children, where a child has been adopted.
• Regional Tracing Origins Service for adult adoptees and birth families in Adoption - this service traces birth parents and adoptees on referral from a Registered Adoption Agency in Northern Ireland.
• Advice, Support, Signposting and Advocacy Service for adults seeking information about their past or for tracing in adoption - this service signposts those searching for information in relation to birth relatives or adopted adults to the appropriate organisation and advocates on their behalf where this is required.

It will be a requirement of the tender that the Provider (or Lead Agency) is a Registered Adoption Agency by the start date of the new contract.

The purpose of this Prior Information Notice is to raise awareness of an upcoming procurement and gauge the level of interest in the provision of such services in advance of any formal tender process.

To make an expression of interest please email PaLSSocialcare.Sourcing@hscni.net providing the following information:

— organisation name;

— brief description of services you provide; and

— web address if applicable.

The tender is still in preparation and tender details have not yet been finalised and are subject to change. Full tender details will be included in the suite of tender documents which will be available for download when the tender is advertised.

This Prior Information Notice (PIN) has been published in the Find a Tender Service (FTS) via the Procurement and Logistics Service (PaLS) eTendersNI procurement portal: etendersni.gov.uk ↗. Any tender opportunity will also be advertised using this same procurement portal - eTendersNI.

Tenderers must be registered on eTendersNI and have selected the Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV) Code 85000000 (Health and social work services), 85300000 (Social work and related services) and 85312300 (Guidance and counselling services).

The tender is likely to be advertised in the coming month(s). It is your responsibility to find this or any tender opportunity when it is advertised, please check the portal regularly for tender opportunities.

Note: This is not a call for tender. Market awareness is for information purposes only. Any interest shown does not constitute a commitment to participate in a procurement exercise. Failure to show interest does not restrict providers from participating in any procurement exercise. There is no guarantee a procurement process will run.

Note: The Public Contract Regulations (PCR 2015) have changed the way HSC are required to procure social and other specific services ‘to the person’ with the introduction of the light touch regime (LTR) — (Regulation 74– 77 applies).

A decision with regards to lots has not been finalised.