Manchester City Council (MCC) is very keen for organisations to apply for a new opportunity advertised on The Chest to be part of a preferred providers list for services for Troubled Families. The closing date is 19th July. They are hoping that a large number of organisations, small and large, offering a very wide range of services are successful in meeting the basic quality requirements. The central Troubled Families Teams will refer to these services as and when needed, to provide a quick and targeted solution to a wide range of issues.
The investment framework (or preferred providers list) is divided into 5 lots: families have a safe and stable living environment; families achieve independence, self-sufficiency and economic well-being; families have a positive impact on their community; families’ health and wellbeing improves; and children and young people are engaged and progressing. Organisations can apply for one or more lots and with multiple interventions in each lot. Organisations can choose wards where they’d be able to offer the service. Many voluntary and community sector organisations in Manchester are offering services that might fit into the framework not just those who think of themselves as offering services to families.
Among the kinds of services that MCC are looking for are: mentoring; parenting support; support to victims of domestic abuse; money mentoring; financial and literacy training; debt advice; facilitated volunteering; interventions that build self-esteem and raise ambition; interventions for drug and alcohol abuse; support around sexual health; encouraging physical activity.
The services that are successful will be spot purchased - bought for an individual client or group of clients as a one-off. For some voluntary organisations such as those running children’s homes or independent hospitals this will be a familiar model but for others it will be the first time that they have thought about offering their services as an individual package. For the organisations that are new you may want to look at this brief article about spot purchasing as a starting point.
Macc will be running some training in spot purchasing but unfortunately it will not be in place before 19th July when the applications have to be put in.