Statutory and non-statutory Advocacy: future service planning

Manchester City Council is inviting organisations to participate in a Preliminary Market Engagement exercise regarding a review of statutory and non-statutory Advocacy service delivery. Please note the following explanation of the Council’s approach to preliminary market engagement; the core principle for underpinning our approach is to ensure probity be maintained throughout the process by strict adherence to the following guidelines: All potential suppliers are informed that they are invited to participate in soft market testing Any information provided by the authority to a supplier participating in preliminary market engagement will be shared with all suppliers participating in the exercise.

Any information provided by a supplier participating in preliminary market engagement will be deemed as commercially sensitive and handled by the authority in such a manner as to ensure commercial confidentiality is not violated. Any information provided by a supplier participating in preliminary market engagement will not be shared with any third party without the express permission and written consent of the participating supplier.

The preliminary market engagement exercise is to be undertaken to ascertain if the Council wishes to proceed to a competitive tender process and if so will help inform the design of any future procurement process and will assist the Council to shape their requirements to ensure that they obtain the best solution to meet their needs and that will be most attractive to the market to ensure as much competition as possible. If the outcome of the preliminary market engagement is such that the authority decides to go out for a competitive tender (N.B: the Council reserves the right not to do so if it so decides or to utilise other procurements routes open to it such as pre-tendered national/regional/other frameworks), then all suppliers who have participated in the preliminary market engagement will be notified of the tendering opportunity.

Participation in the preliminary market engagement does not mean that you will automatically qualify for the tender opportunity and all prospective tenders, irrespective of previous participation, will be required to register and meet the conditions of participation of the tender at that time. Overview Manchester City Council / Manchester Local Care Organisation is undertaking a review of its Advocacy Services arrangements in advance of the current contract ending on 30th September 2027.

Advocacy providers are invited to attend a Preliminary Market Engagement workshop via Teams (to be held at 3pm on Tuesday 20th October 2026) to discuss the matters outlined below. To help shape and inform the structure of the workshop, attendees are asked to complete a supplementary survey via The Chest e-procurement portal, which should take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

This preliminary market engagement exercise will help us gain insight on current challenges, opportunities, future demand pressures, and considerations for the development of a future Advocacy services model. This engagement exercise is open to organisations that currently provide statutory and/or non-statutory Advocacy services - Providers do not need to currently deliver services within Manchester to participate.

No decisions have been made regarding the future service delivery model at this stage, and feedback gathered through this engagement process will be considered alongside current Advocacy service performance, demand analysis, financial information, benchmarking activity, and statutory requirements before any future commissioning decisions are taken. The Council's key priority going forward is to ensure a sustainable, effective and responsive Advocacy provision, which enables positive outcomes for citizens.