Care Support Services for Children with a Disability (2026)

Hampshire County Council Children’s Services commissions care support for children and young people with disabilities. The children and young people requiring care support services will include those with severe disabilities such as learning disabilities, physical disabilities, autistic spectrum conditions, behaviour that challenges and complex physical or mental health needs.

The Services are part of a holistic support package for the child / young person that meets identified outcomes as part of a Care Plan as agreed by the Council’s County Allocation Panel. This Service is part of Hampshire County Council’s Children’s Services Department’s continuum of services which support children and young people with disabilities.

Care support is a Tier 4 specialist service, which can be offered to a family following a social care assessment where the Disabled Children’s Team criteria has been met and/or an unmet social care need has been identified. The Services will have the following features: • provides a time limited or ongoing intervention for families, dependent on need • provides a range of different types of support to be available (e.g. domiciliary care, personal care, support in the community, overnight care etc.) • provides flexible levels of support to meet individual needs (some families may only need light touch, and some will need intensive) • provides support at both the times that is assessed as a need by the Social Worker and requested by families, for the time period required (e.g., one hour at the beginning and / or end of the day) • provides suitably trained, reliable, consistent workers; known to the child or young person, all of whom will have an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) check, to ensure continuity and stability for families • delivers Excellent / Good care in accordance with Care Quality Commission guidance for providers of health and social care services for children and young people • identifies opportunities for the use of assistive care technologies and equipment to enable families to support their child independently in their own home or for the young person to access the community independently • can support a child or young person in their own homes whilst the parent or carer is not present • can support a child or young person in a residential home, foster home or their own home • can support the child or young person in their local communities The current Care Support for Children with a Disability Framework was developed by Hampshire County Council to address growing and evolving needs in social care, for children who require support in their home environment and to safeguard these children.

The service is coming to the end of it's life span and is required to be retendered to ensure Hampshire may meet the needs of its eligible residents. The new framework will be an evolution from the current Framework and the Authority is looking is looking for contracts for services under the Framework to commence from 01/09/2026.

This is a light touch contract as set out in section 9 of the Procurement Act 2023. As such the Council is establishing a Framework which will be open for new entrants across it's entire term.

However, the Council reserves the right to temporarily pause the Framework for new entrants at any point. Any pause will be communicated through the Councils electronic tendering system.

The Timetable in section 4.1 relates to the initial application window. Once the Framework commences it will be reopened for new applications and suppliers will be able to apply at any point up until 3 months before the Framework expires.