Study Programme for NEET (16-19) (Not in Education, Employment or Training), other vulnerable young people and adult learners (19+) - SC240120

Community Learning and Skills (CLS) is Kent County Council’s (KCC) internally commissioned department to deliver Education and Training to adults and young people over 16. CLS is responsible for delivering the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), Adult Skills Fund (ASF), Greater London Authority (GLA) budget and ESFA ‘Study Programme’ courses for Young People aged 16 – 19, including NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training), all of which support the goals and objectives of Framing Kent’s Future.

As a result of changes in funding from the Department for Education, CLS seeks to procure services for young people (aged 16-19, and up to 24 with an EHCP) and specialist services for adults. Consequently, Kent County Council intends to commission these services for the 2025/26 period and beyond.

Furthermore, due to changes in procurement regulations moving from Public Contract Regulations (2015) to the Procurement Act 2023, the Council wants to conduct market engagement to raise awareness of the implications of the changes in these regulations and to further determine the most appropriate service model for this provision.

As part of Kent County Council’s commitment to fairness, openness and transparency the Prior Information Notice (PIN) is issued solely for the purpose of conducting pre-procurement market testing with the following aims:

• To develop a suitable delivery model.
• To understand the market and readiness to deliver NEET provision across Kent.
• To explore the most viable commissioning approach to deliver NEET provision.

As part of this process workshops are available to interested providers, with two time slots available. To register an interest in this opportunity providers must submit an ‘Expression of Interest’ (EOI) through the Kent Business Portal and send a message through the messaging function with their preference for a time slot.

These workshops will be delivered via Microsoft Teams and will last for 1.5 hours.

They are scheduled on the following dates:

• Tuesday 10th September 2024: 09:30 – 11:00
• Friday 13th September 2024: 09:30 – 11:00

Please note that feedback from the workshops will be shared with every provider who has expressed an interest, and this information will be made available to all bidders in any future tender.

Please be aware that this PIN will close on Thursday 12th September at 16:00, and all responses will need to be submitted via the Kent Business Portal by this time.