Swindon Borough Council - Young People Alternative Provision, Pre and Post 16 years - Education and Training

Swindon Borough Council is seeking input from the market for the provision of an Alternative Provision (AP) education and training service that will reduce the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), with particular focus on young people in or on the fringes of the criminal justice system. This market assessment is not part of the procurement process, but is purely investigative in nature, to potentially assist the Council in defining a specification and contract for the services.

In preparation for this, it is our intention to conduct a Soft Market Testing/Preliminary Market Engagement to review the current supply market. This advert relates to a proposed 'soft market testing' exercise only and is NOT a call for competition.

Any contracts for services or supplies relating to this exercise may be subject to separate procurement processes in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended). All participants in this event shall be responsible for their own costs (including third party costs) and the Contracting Authority shall have no liability to any participant.

The rationale for the Alternative Provision is to intervene and support vulnerable young people early to prevent the escalation of needs so as to increase life chances and deliver sustainable outcomes. Typically the profile of these young people can be one of low level disruption and significant absence from school or college with additional factors of vulnerability to exploitation within the community and possible involvement of the Youth Offending Team or substance misuse support services.

Some of these young people may also have special educational needs (SEN) or have other vulnerability factors such as being in the care of the local authority (CLA) or being involved in the child protection system The purpose of this SMT questionnaire is to gain intelligence on the supply market for Swindon Borough Council's requirements, including information that will help define the most appropriate structure, plan and budget for any potential competitive procurement exercise. The closing date for the return of the SMT questionnaire/application to the event is 17.00 25th August 2020. For the avoidance of doubt, no information provided in response to this questionnaire will be used by the Council in assessing providers during any future procurement process.