A new tender from Manchester City Council has been advertised on The Chest. The tender is for advice services and is in 3 parts. Part 1 is for City-Wide Advice Services. Part 2 is for Targeted Individual/Family Advice Services. Part 3 is for a Framework Agreement for the Provision of Innovative Advice Solutions. All the tenders are for 1 year with the possibility of an extension for another year.
Part 1 and Part 2 are block contracts, successful organisations will get a set amount of funding to provide services for the specified client groups. Part 1 is a single lot whereas Part 2 is 3 lots, Debt interventions, Welfare Benefits interventions and Housing interventions.
The specification for Part 2 and Part 3 is the same, the difference is the method of purchasing. Part 3 is spot purchased, organisations apply to be on a "preferred providers list" and will be paid per client or group of clients. The organisation applying has to specify the intervention, the staffing structure (i.e. delivery staffing, how many staff are involved in the direct delivery of the intervention to the client(s) e.g. 1 staff member in a debt advice session), the reach (how many clients are dealt with at once e.g. is it a 1:1 or with a group of clients) and hourly cost (this is the total cost not just the cost of the direct worker so would include "on" costs). If you want to find out more about spot purchasing then please go here.
Organisations can apply for Part 1, single or multiple lots in Part 2 and put forward multiple interventions for Part 3. Organisations can apply by themselves or in collaboration with other organisations but there will have to be a lead organisation.
All applications have to be made through The Chest. If you are not already signed up then the first thing you need to do is register. The next stage it to register your interest for the Advice tenders and then you will able to access the documents that you need. Guidance on using the The Chest can be found here. All requests for further information also have to be made through The Chest. The questions you ask will not have any impact on the decision-making process for the tender so feel free to ask for clarifications.