Specialist Parenting Assessments 1

The provision of high quality and effective specialist parenting assessments is essential for the business of Children’s Social Care (CSC) and contributes to the strategic priority of protecting children from significant harm. • Our primary purpose is to ensure that children are protected from significant harm and their development and wellbeing are promoted. We do this by working openly with children and families and collaboratively with partners across the city. • We will work openly with children and their families to bring about change, in solution-focused ways, building on their strengths, so that parents and carers are able to provide good parenting, consistent boundaries and emotional warmth, allowing children to develop life skills and resilience. • We are committed to supporting children to remain within their family wherever possible.

We value the importance of direct social work and family support work with families as a means of enabling change, responding through support and challenge to the diverse emotional, cultural and material needs of each child and their family. • We recognise that bringing about change and building resilience in families, who are often very disadvantaged, is difficult and challenging work requiring skilled and confident social workers and family workers who need to be supported by good leadership and management, supervision and learning opportunities. Tenders are invited for the provision of Specialist Parenting Assessments A Framework Agreement will be set up with three (3) Lots comprising:- Residential Assessments Community Based Assessments; and Psychological assessments/cognitive functioning testing This will be a two (2) year contract for the period 1st April 2016 to 31st March 2018 with an option to extend for a further two (2)years subject to satisfactory performance and budget availability