SS15 75 Youth Service

Kent County Council (the council) is the largest county council in England covering an area of 3,500 square kilometres. It has an annual expenditure of over £900m on goods and services and a population of 1.3m.

The Council provides a wide range of personal and strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils and 289 parish/town councils. Further background and technical information can be found within the tender documentation.

The Opportunity Kent County Council is seeking tenders from suitably experienced contractors who can deliver Youth Services across the following lots which will cover 12 service deliver points across Kent based on district/borough council areas. 1. Ashford 2.

Canterbury 3. Dartford 4.

Dover 5. Gravesham 6.

Maidstone 7. Sevenoaks 8.

Shepway 9. Swale 10.

Thanet 11. Tonbridge & Malling 12.

Tunbridge Wells The service will focus on raising the aspirations of all children and young people aged 8 - 25, with emphasis on working with children and young people aged between 8-12 and 13-19 year olds. The service will also support young people aged up to 24 with learning difficulties and or disabilities to achieve their potential.

The service includes signposting young people from Early Help and Preventative Services (EHPS) to external open access youth services, with the requirement that an initial response is made to the Youth Hub Delivery Manager within 48 hours of a request being made. Prospective contractor(s) will be expected to co-ordinate the service with the Council's (EHPS) through the Youth Hub Delivery Manager as well as support young people who are NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training).

Contractor(s) will be required to demonstrate that street-based youth work activities are intelligence led, offer a broad curriculum, engage with the local community and are aligned to the principles of community development work. In order to achieve this target, co-ordination with the Youth Hub Delivery Manager and Crime Safety Unit is expected.

A tender workshop event will be held on Wednesday 23 March 2016 which will provide prospective tenderers the opportunity to raise questions on the procurement process. All of these questions will be recorded and published to all bidders after the event.

The venue for the workshop will be confirmed once places have been booked through the Kent business portal. For more details, please 'Register an Interest' in this opportunity to access the full specification of this service. Additional information: Instructions to Suppliers: 'Register an Interest’ in this opportunity via the Kent Business Portal to access the full instructions to tenderers.