Market Engagement - Children's Advocacy and Independent Visitor Service

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council (the Council) is seeking to engage with the market to gain an understanding of the capacity and appetite to bid for the provision of Children's Advocacy and Independent Visitor Service within Southend-on-Sea. Advocacy is about empowering children and young people to make sure that their views and wishes are heard at all times and represented in decision making processes. The Council's vision is that all children and young people in Southend feel listened to and empowered, have choice and control over their support, and have their rights upheld. Furthermore, the views put forward by children and young people should inform the development of the Council's services. The service will provide advocacy and independent visiting services for the Council's Children and Young People in Care, Care Leavers and Children and Young People who are the subject of Child Protection conferences. It must contribute to the improvement priorities of Children's Services; improve the quality of practice so it is consistently good or better, improve the outcomes for looked after children, deliver the right services at the right time and work with children and families to shape services. The advocacy element of the service will have contact with more children than the independent visiting element of the contract. The projected demand is for advocates to be allocated to 60 children per year and independent visitors to be allocated to 8 children per year.