Family and Carer Advice Line - please note this is a a grant opportunity

The Department is seeking to fund a voluntary sector organisation to run a national information and advice service for the families and carers of children at risk or involved in the care system. The Department wishes to support the sector to ensure that families and carers have access to expert advice and support to understand the system and help prevent avoidable escalation of family issues.

The service, provided via web and telephony, will provide high quality, independent information and advice for families, relatives and friends on a broad range of issues including: care proceedings; kinship and other forms of care; child protection; family and child law; and sources of support for families and friend’s carers and the children for whom they care. We want to ensure that families, relatives and friends, across the country have access to expert advice and support in order to assist them in engaging with Local Authority Children’s Services and, where appropriate, accessing independent legal advice relating to child and family law.

The Department is offering two years of grant funding to run an advice line from 1st July 2016 – 31 March 2018. There may be an option to extend funding for a further two years beyond March 2018, subject to Departmental approval.

The value of the grant : £270,000-£320,000 per annum (pro rata) will be available from 1 July 2016- 31 March 2018. (Funding for 2016/17 will cover Quarters 2,3 and 4 only.) More information about the specification and evaluation criteria for this grant can be found in the Invitation to Bid documentation.

Please follow the format suggested in Document 1 and Document 2 when preparing your bid. If an application is late, DfE may determine that there were exceptional circumstances beyond the applicant’s control that meant the deadline could not be met.

Please do not send enquiries to this mailbox as emails will not be opened until after the bid deadline has passed. If you have a question which is not covered in the FAQ document, and you are unable to proceed with your application, please email ENQUIRIES.FAMILYANDCARERADVICELINE@education.gsi.gov.uk before 18 April 2016. We will continue to accept questions of a technical nature until the bid deadline.