North West Strategic Improvement Advisor (SIA) Project_7977

The Strategic Improvement Advisor (SIA) in the North West region pilot was announced through the Departments strategy; Stable Homes, Built on Love, and aims to drive improvements in children's services in the region.

The Departments Improvement and Interventions programme in Children's Social Care (CSC) uses expert advisers and commissioners (typically from within the children's social care sector) to work with those authorities judged inadequate by Ofsted and, in certain instances, those judged as 'RI', as set out in Putting Children First (2016).

The Independent Review of Children's Social Care (Care Review) emphasised the important role that commissioners and advisors play in providing challenge, scrutiny, and leadership to support improvement in Local Authorities CSC.

To capitalise on their expertise, the review recommended that DfE bring in-house our existing improvement Commissioners, creating nine Regional Commissioner roles.

DfE wants to test a variation of the proposed Regional Commissioner model, by introducing a senior Children's Social Care expert to provide dedicated improvement support and guidance to a single region, with the aim of improving regional performance.

The SIA will work in collaboration with regional stakeholders, the DfE and cross-governmental colleagues to deliver on regional improvement.

RESPONSIBILITIES: The Strategic Improvement Advisor's primary role will be two-fold.

1.

Act as a unifying figure in the region; promoting joined-up working between key partners in the North West, across health, police, education and other key sectors.

They will facilitate new relationships between these strategic partners and work towards a shared set of goals, that ultimately help the region to improve its ambitions.

2.

Responsible for developing and co-ordinating the delivery of a region-wide improvement plan that highlights the key ambitions for children in the region and the key outcomes and actions that the region will work towards.

The Requirements that are the subject of this procurement are captured by PCR 2015 Chapter 3, Section 7 (Social and Other Specific Services); the so called "Light Touch Regime".

The Department is committed to engaging and working with Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's).

A pro-active approach is being taken in stipulating that this procurement is open to SME's and individuals only.

To register your interest to tender and view the tender documents, you will need to be registered as a supplier on the DfE Jaggaer eTendering portal, available at https://education.app.jaggaer.com/web/login.html Once registered the information will be accessible via the View Opportunities link on the Homepage.

Select the Opportunity Notice for North West Strategic Improvement Advisor (ITT_2252) and this will take you directly to the live tender.

The closing date for submitting your tender is 12:00 GMT on 6th June 2023.