Purpose

Tender Award for Impartial Support Advice and
Information on Disability (ISAID). The provision of free impartial
advice, information and support to all parents/carers of children
with SEND and/or disability. Following an open competitive tender
process, a supplier has been chosen to become the next provider of
the above services from January 2024.
This report and the award will be considered under a Key Officer
Decision (KOD) by the Strategic Director of Children &
Families.

Content

That, the Strategic Director,
Children’s Services:
 

      
i.         
Authorised the award of the contract for the
Impartial Support, Advice and Information on Disability and Special
Educational Needs (ISAID) service to Your Voice in Health and
Social Care, following the evaluation of competitive tenders. The
contract shall be for an initial period of 5 years commencing from
1st January 2024 to 31st January 2029, with the option to extend
for a further period of 2 years from 1st January 2030 until 31st
December 2031, subject to performance and continued funding. The
total value of the new contract, including the extension option, is
£1,017,450.
 

    
ii.         
and Noted:

Local Authorities had a statutory duty to a provide Information,
Advice and Support Services (formerly known as Parent Partnership
services) for their community for children and young people aged
0-25 as laid out in the Children’s and Families Act 2014.
Information, Advice and Support Services were required to be
independent and provide impartial, confidential, accessible advice,
support, and information to the parents of children with special
educational needs and/or disability; as well as to young people
(age 16+) with special educational needs and/or disability. Local
Authorities must ensure that their Local Offer includes details of
how information, advice and support related to SEN and disabilities
could be accessed and how it was resourced Section 2 of Special
Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years
2015 (the Code of Practice) set out the requirements for this
statutory service which included:
 
a.    
The provision of impartial advice, information, and
support to children with SEN and/or disability and to
parents/carers of children with SEN and/or disability.
b.    
Information and advice should be free, impartial,
accurate, and confidential and in formats which were accessible and
responsive to the needs of users.
c.    
To work with the Parent Carer Forum and other user
groups to ensure that parents/carers and young people’s views
were heard, understood, and informed and influenced the development
of local SEND policy, practice and decision making.
d.    
Local authorities should involve children, young
people and parents (including local Parent Carer Forums and Youth
Forums) in the design or commissioning of services providing
information, advice and support in order to ensure that those
services met local needs. Local authorities should do this in a way
which ensured that children, young people, and parents felt they
had participated fully in the process and had a sense of
co-ownership.
e.    
To work with schools, the Local Authority (LA),
Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) (now known as Integrated Care
Systems) and commissioning officers and others to help them develop
positive relationships with parents/carers and young.

Following the competitive tendering of the ISAID service which
commenced in October 2022, it was proposed that the organisation
called Your Voice in Health and Social Care who were the successful
bidder in the competitive tender process was awarded the
contract.
 
The current
contract for the ISAID service with Family Action, comes to an end
on 31st December 2023. Family Action did not submit a bid for the
competitive tender.
 
The current
contract with Family Action was commissioned in 2017 for an initial
term of three years with an option to extend for a further two
years. The contract was subsequently extended until December 2022.
A further extension to the current contract was sought via an
Exception to the Contract Procedure Rules to extend the contract
from December 2022 to June 2023. A further 6 month’s
extension had been sought via another Exception to the Contract
Procedure Rules to extend the contract from June 2023 to December
2023 to allow adequate time for the mobilisation of the contract to
the new provider.
 
The ISAID
service would continue to offer free, confidential, accurate and
impartial advice and support to children and families living in
Ealing with a child/young person up to the age of 25 who had
special educational needs or a disability (SEND).