Big Lottery Fund Scotland ESF Programme, ref: BIG001-0592

The Big Lottery Fund in Scotland is seeking to procure five contracts to deliver support services to increase the financial capacity and therefore improve the social inclusion of the most disadvantaged individuals and households in Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde, Dundee, North Ayrshire and Glasgow.

The maximum number of contracts the Fund will award to a particular bidder at the ITT stage of this procurement is three (3).

The criteria for determining which lots are awarded to the bidder where the application of the award criteria at the ITT stage results in the bidder winning more than three lots, will be set out at the ITT stage.

Service providers must achieve the following outcomes through the contracts: • An increase in disadvantaged participants with improved money management skills; and • A decrease in disadvantaged participants affected by debt as a barrier to social inclusion.

The investment is being part funded (via the Scottish Government) from the European Social Fund 2014-2020 (ESF).

The successful bidders will therefore be required to meet ESF requirements such as audit, eligibility, recording keeping, publicity and procurement as part of contract delivery.

The support must be delivered to eligible participants (as defined in the tender documents) We expect eligible participants to receive intensive holistic support to deal with issues including but not limited to: • Debt; • Fuel poverty; • Accessing affordable credit; • Accessing affordable products; • Lack of basic banking services; • Lack of money management skills; and • Lack of IT/digital skills needed to manage money online.

The support may be delivered on a one to one basis or in group sessions and can be delivered face to face, over the phone or online as appropriate.

Service providers will be required to use their knowledge and experience to propose the most suitable methodology for delivering the support.

The service provider will be required to promote the support services on offer throughout the term of the Contract in order to ensure a steady stream of participants are engaged and take up the support.

For the purposes of learning and publicity the service provider will be required to collect and share suitable data, such as case studies, throughout the contract term in order to highlight service progression and success.

Service providers will also be required to contribute towards an evaluation of the overall Delivering Financial Inclusion programme.

Further details about the service requirement including our minimum targets for eligible participants benefiting from the support under each contract are provided in the tender documents, which can be downloaded from: https://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/about-big/tender-opportunities