Advocacy Service for Adults

North Somerset Council is looking for a provider who has the suitable skills and experience to deliver advocacy under the Care Act. The contract will allow the provider the ability to sub-contract.

This in turn will allow the provider to deliver specialist advocacy requirements. Within this contract the provider will supply the following advocacy services: Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA) NHS Complaints Advocates (IHCA) Independent Advocacy (ICCA) Paid Representatives Nearest Relative The service provider will support the council in meeting its aims and objectives in ensuring that people and carers are involved in decisions about their care and support.

The council's objective is to ensure that people and carers understand how they can be involved, how they can contribute and take part, in some cases, how they can lead or direct the process. The service provider will deliver advocacy under the Care Act 2014 in accordance with the Care Act statutory guidance.

This procurement falls under the Light Touch Regime as detailed within the Public Regulations 2015 and as such we will be running an 'Open' style tender with the option to move to a presentation/negotiation stage. Therefore all providers will be able to submit a full tender (quality and price).

If the evaluation panel chooses to move to the second stage of a presentation/negotiation we intend to invite the three top scoring providers based on their overall Quality/Price score. However should the evaluation panel be satisfied that a provider has met all of the requirements in their initial tender submission, the panel may choose not to move to the second stage.

In order for a provider to be considered for this stage, they must have passed all of the Pass/Fail sections AND met the minimum standard requirement in this tender for their quality (method statements), which has been set at 50%. Failure to meet the minimum score of 50% for the method statements will disqualify the provider from the process and they will not be eligible for shortlisting, nor will they be considered in the initial stage for an immediate award of contract.