The London Borough of Hackney Children's and Young People's Services is in the process of redesigning its current supported accommodation pathway for looked after children, care leavers and single homeless young people aged 16-21.

Young people who are looked after, care leavers, or homeless need somewhere safe and suitable to live to help them make a positive transition into adulthood.

A secure housing base is also critical to young people progressing in other areas of life, such as education, training or employment, improved mental health, relationships and building of social networks.

Hackney has an increasing demand for good quality supported accommodation as our looked after children's population get older and start leaving care.

As of 31st March 2019 there were 149 16/17 year old children Looked After.

This represents a 25% increase from 2018 (119 children) and a 57% increase (95 children) since 2015.We want to ensure that Hackney has sufficient high quality placements and accommodation options that meet the needs of all looked after children and care leavers, safeguarding them from harm and supporting them in achieving the best possible outcomes whilst ensuring the best use of available resources.

The new pathway consists of: Lot 1: Assessment Centre (8 - 12 places), Lot 2: Progress Services- 16/17 year old (20 - 25 places), Lot 3: Progress Services 18+ (40-50 places), Lot 4: Young Parents Service (8-10 places) and Lot 5: Move on - visiting support & affordable accommodation for young people (20-40 places).

The pathway will focus on improving outcomes for young people and will provide high quality support and accommodation for young people with personalised interventions and flexible support to enable them to be able to move on to independent living.

We are particularly interested in working with providers who currently use the principles and practices associated with Psychological Informed Environments (PIEs) or have elements of this or a similar approach already embedded in service delivery in practice.

Hackney Council wishes to consult with providers in relation to the above services and has organised a 'market engagement' event to inform providers of our intention to go out to tender.

The market engagement event will take place on Wednesday 19th February from 10am to 1pm.

Spaces are limited and will be offered to providers on completion of the Market Engagement Questionnaire.

If you would like to participate in this unique event, please register your interest by using the messaging function on ProContract/London Tenders Portal by 12th February 2020.

Interested organisations are requested to state their area of expertise and can consider whether each or all of the above services can be provided collectively or in part.

In addition, interested organisations are requested to complete the Market Engagement Questionnaire on the London Tenders portal and submit along with their expression of interest by Wednesday 12th February 2020.