Interpreting and Communication Services for People who are d/Deaf and Deafblind

Background 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 ad strategic services on behalf of its residents, operating in partnership with 12 district councils, 7 clinical commissioning groups and 289 parish/town councils. The Opportunity The Council is setting up a Framework for Interpreting and Communication Services for People who are d/Deaf and Deafblind to allow the Council to buy communication services from a list of approved providers who meet a certain set of minimum standards. Approved providers will then be able to bid to deliver Communication Services. The services which will be commissioned under the Framework will fall into one of the following disciplines. Applicants may apply to join the Framework within one of more of these disciplines (please download the Invitation to Tender for a list of the sub-lotting structure): Lot 1 - Face-to-face Interpreting Services (Verbal) Lot 2 - Face-to-face Interpreting Services (Non-Verbal) Lot 3 - Transcription Lot 4 - Lip Speakers Lot 5 - Speech to Text Reporters Lot 6 - Deaf Relay Lot 7 - Translation Lot 8 - Video Interpreting Services Lot 9 - Other Sign Language Interpreting from an International Range of Languages Lot 10 - Trainee Interpreters Lot 11 - Out of Hours Agency Expression of Interest and Tender Process Expressions of Interest will only be accepted via the Kent Business Portal - www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk Tenders must be received by 12 noon on the 9th May 2019.