*PRE-MARKET ENGAGEMENT EVENT* Children in Care - Helplines

This tender seeks to engage a supplier to provide independent advice and support to current and prospective foster parents through a national helpline across England and a website with digital support services, including a live chat function.

Fosterline is designed to offer an impartial source of up to date and accurate information and advice for prospective and existing foster carers on issues such as how to become a foster carer, allegations of abuse, benefits, training, breakdown of placements, matters relating to the legal position of carers and any other issues about fostering which enquirers raise. Fosterline has been funded by the Department for the last 13 years and is regarded as valuable resource for foster parents to discuss issues of concern confidentially.

The objective of Fosterline is to:

• Support the retention of foster parents by providing accurate, appropriate and sensitive information, advice and signposting on a wide range of issues of concern to foster parents, thus enabling them to meet the needs of the children and young people in their care; and
• Support the recruitment of foster carers by providing confidential, independent advice and information about how to become a foster carer, the issues involved, the training and support available to them, reaching a wide range of people with the potential to foster, including currently under-represented groups.
• Optimise the use of the service and ensure that foster carers are aware of the service and its benefits through regular marketing and signposting. Additional information: This is a notice for a pre-market engagement event. This event will be held on 6 October 2021. Please register your interest using the information provided in the information above.

Friends and Family is a national helpline that is in place to advise parents, grandparents, relatives and friends about their rights and options when social workers or courts make decisions about their children’s welfare. The helpline will provide advice to parents whose children are in need, at risk or are in the care system and with wider family members and friends who are raising children (known as kinship carers).

Kinship carers are relatives or friends who raise children who cannot safely remain with their parents. Across the UK more than 180,000 children are living with kinship carers – significantly more than are in the care system and many more than are adopted, making kinship care an important element of the children’s social care system.

These children have often suffered similar adversities to those in the care system. These include parental substance misuse or mental or physical incapacity, domestic violence, imprisonment, teenage parenthood, parental separation or death. Child protection concerns are common. At least 20% of children raised in kinship care are affected by some degree of emotional and behavioural difficulties (‘Report of the Parliamentary Taskforce on Kinship’ 2020).

Research shows that emotional support from kinship carers in similar positions is the most important form of support needed after financial support. Currently there is uneven provision of local support groups for kinship carers: some localities offer no provision, some commission groups that are restricted to kinship carers with legal orders for their children, while in other parts of the country local support groups are peer-led and open to all. Through this procurement we want to build the foundations for high-quality peer support across the country, so provision is less of a postcode lottery. Additional information: This is a notice for a pre-market engagement event. This event will be held on 6 October 2021. Please register your interest using the information provided in the information above.

The helpline is in place to support families who are in need of emotional support, information, advice and guidance on a wide and expansive range of issues, any aspect of parenting and family life.

The Department funds Family Lives/Gingerbread to:

• Provide information and guidance to families to enable them to create more positive interactions for families, resolve issues at the earliest possible stage and enhance the likelihood of positive outcomes;
• Give independent, impartial, up to date, personalised support on issues of children and families and how to access support;
• Provide effective information and signposting to families to sources of support;
• Promote effective outcomes, whilst enhancing long term sustainability for families, making them less dependent upon central funding;
• Support harder-to-reach groups who might be less likely or less aware of their entitlement to these services.
• Engage with local authorities and remind them of their responsibilities to promote and provide advice to families. Additional information: This is a notice for a pre-market engagement event. This event will be held on 6 October 2021. Please register your interest using the information provided in the information above.

The Legal Family Support Service Helpline will provide free legal information, advice and representation to children, young people, their families, carers and professionals. It will give information and guidance to families to enable them to resolve issues at the earliest possible stage, creating more positive interactions for families, and enhancing the likelihood of positive outcomes.

Look towards promoting the long-term sustainability for families making them less dependent upon central funding. Support harder-to-reach groups who might be less likely or less aware of their entitlement to these services. The service will identify these groups and have plans in place to address and overcome barriers and issues. Additional information: This is a notice for a pre-market engagement event. This event will be held on 6 October 2021. Please register your interest using the information provided in the information above.