Children's Social Care Safeguarding Support Project: Child Protection and Court Teams

Herefordshire County Council is seeking to procure a service provider to deliver and oversee the provision of 4x managed children's social care teams to support the Child Protection (CP) and Court Service. Each team to include:

i. 6xFTE Qualified Social Workers (QSW) • Minimum of 4 years PQ Experience with relevant statutory experience • Flexibility around working from home/office but minimum requirements of face to face visits for all children and families • Inclusive of accommodation costs

ii. 1xFTE Team Manager (TM) • Minimum of 8 years PQ Experience • Minimum of 5 years TM experience • Inclusive of accommodation costs

Delivery will commence from 28 November 2022 to 31 March 2023, with potential extension for up to March 2024. The service will provide a seamless transition from the existing commissioned teams to avoid any unnecessary disruption to the children being supported by the Council. The requirement of the CP & Court Teams is to ensure that plans are reviewed on a regular basis. Plans are to be progressed without undue delay always ensuring that the children and their families are kept informed and that their voice is captured and recorded. Plans need to be SMART and proportionate All teams are to ensure that relevant safeguarding procedures are followed without delay (e.g. strategy meetings, s47 enquires, chronologies and case summaries etc) where appropriate. Visits need to be in person, within timescale and purposeful, direct work is expected to inform the assessment or the progression of plans. It is anticipated that this proposal will provide the service with stable teams who will provide additional capacity to support our ongoing improvement work Herefordshire Council's children services have recently been rated as inadequate by Ofsted, the full report is available here. This contract will form one aspect of the Council's improvement plan.