Essex Advocacy Services - Market Engagement

Essex County Council are seeking to engage with the market ahead of a procurement exercise for the provision of advocacy services within Essex. This will be in the form of an engagement questionnaire to the market, focussing on key areas that will assist ECC in the shaping of the future procurement process and service delivery.

The engagement questionnaire can be downloaded directly by all parties that wish to participate in the engagement exercise, and this is available via the following link: https://www.livingwellessex.org/working-with-us/current-a... On the site, please follow the link under the Advocacy Services (Adults) section titled 'Advocacy Soft Market Testing Document' - this will allow you to download and save the document in MS Word format. Additional information: Essex County Council currently holds four advocacy contracts, operating independently of each other and managed by three providers.

These current contracts cover the following services: • Formal 1:1 Advocacy, including NHS Complaints Advocacy • Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy • Independent Mental Health Advocacy • Citizen Advocacy These contracts are due to expire in June 2018, and ECC is seeking to procure advocacy services to commence from 1st July 2018 and ensure that services continue to be available to the residents of Essex. At present the project team is scoping potential procurement options for these services and discussing the pros and cons of each option.

The market engagement questionnaire will be a key element that will inform ECC to understand the existing market and shape the procurement around this feedback. All responses to this questionnaire should be returned via email to Nick.Green@Essex.gov.uk , not later than5pm on 1st September 2017. All responses will be for the use of Essex County Council only, and will not be shared with any external parties for any purpose.