Short Breaks Commissioning

This Prior Information Notice is intended to provide advance notification that Staffordshire County Council will be re-tendering for the provision of Community Based Short Break opportunities in October 2015. The current arrangements are due to come to an end on 31st March 2016.

Staffordshire County Council is seeking to commission a range of Community Based Short Break opportunities for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), aged 0 – 25 years old. The specification will include the following provisions: • Family Fun and Information days/activities – to promote confidence and increase access to wider community activities and universal services; • Group based and independent activities/opportunities, for children and young people with SEND to attend independently of their parents/carers – focusing on the provision of meaningful skills to aid with effective transition into adulthood; The provision of Community Based Short Break opportunities is to offer a meaningful break to parents and carers of children and young people with SEND, whilst supporting the child/young person with SEND to achieve specific person centred outcomes.

Community Based Short Breaks will be accessed by children and young people with varying levels of SEND; in order to support children and young people with more complex needs, we are seeking to appoint a number of providers who are able to deliver personal care support. In order to qualify as a Short Break, activities/opportunities must a last a minimum of 2 hours and be facilitated outside of the school day in an evening, at a weekend or during the school holidays.

It is anticipated that the contracts for the provision of a range of Community Based Short Break opportunities across Staffordshire will commence on 1st April 2016, and will be operational for an initial two year period, expiring on 31st March 2018. Following this, there may be opportunity to extend the provision for a further two 12 month periods, initially to 31st March 2019 and then to 31st March 2020.

The estimated contractual value for year 1 provision (2016 – 2017) is £700,000; the remainder of the contract is subject to the availability of funding. New users will first need to register their organisation on the Contracts database.