The procurement contact named on the official notice.

This Pre-Market Engagement (PME) exercise is to enable The Council to explore the availability and quality of educational psychology services across the Derbyshire local area, with a view to securing sufficient educational psychology capacity to contribute educational psychology advice for Educational Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNAs) within the statutory timescales dictated in the SEND Code of Practice.

The Council acknowledges that like many local authorities it is experiencing a high demand for assessments, services and provision for children and young people with SEND in its local area.

The Council needs to manage this demand effectively and efficiently through exploring innovative solutions, understanding market capability, and comprehensively assessing both opportunities and risks for commercial providers and for itself as the commissioning body.

The Council is particularly interested in the application of emerging technologies and the possibilities that these may offer for efficiency in terms of quality assurance, process and financial administration.

In addition, The Council has statutory duties regarding the utilisation of the public resources for which it is responsible, both in terms of securing best value for taxpayers and for remaining fully compliant with its legal obligations around the delivery of services, both internally and making use of commercial market procurement.

In order to address these priorities, The Council believes it is essential to seek the views of professionals engaged in the field of educational psychology, drawing on their expertise and experience to develop sustainable long-term policies that will secure high quality educational psychology services for the direct benefit of Derbyshire residents, while at the same time acknowledging that business continuity and financial sustainability are important considerations for professionals involved in this important field of SEND services.

The Council is committed to engaging with all educational psychology professionals with whom we can form partnership relationships to provide for the children and young people of Derbyshire at the present time, and in preparation for the significant SEND reforms that are being promulgated by the government.

The Council would therefore welcome a broad range of comments and perspectives that will support the planning and delivery of public services going forward.