October 2019 – Business Development Update

Photo by Ian Schneider, Unsplash

3SC actively monitors the major tender portals and we are always looking for opportunities that might can be best delivered through a consortium approach.

There are some potential services on the near horizon which we are watching closely. These include:

1) The GLA is about to launch ESF opportunities for Homeless People, Ex-offenders and Lone Parents. The tenders for Homeless People and Ex-offenders are likely to go live in November 2019 with the Lone Parent tender following in December 2019 or January 2020. 3SC has an EOI for the Homelessness and Ex-offender opportunity that can be found on our website. If you are interested in delivering on this contract please complete it asap.

2) 3SC have been closely tracking developments with the planned MoJ tenders for the new Probation Model Framework. We are interested in delivering all of the services that will be put out to tender and are actively looking for partners to work with for the following:

• The MoJ are procuring services that will deliver unpaid work and accredited programmes in 12 lots nationally. The primes that deliver these contracts will be called Probation Delivery Partners and it is expected that they will have supply chains of providers who will deliver elements of the provision. 3SC is talking to many of these primes about the possibility of developing and managing supply chains of VCSE providers on their behalf. The procurement is likely to begin in November 2019 and run until April 2020. As soon as we have agreed who we will be partnering with, we will seek EOIs from interested providers.

• The MoJ are also planning to develop a Dynamic Framework (DF) to use to call off specialist interventions that will help rehabilitate ex-offenders. Some of the contracts called off will be very small but there will also be regional services that will be best delivered through a partnership. 3SC therefore intend to obtain a place on the DF and then actively compete to win services that are suitable for consortia delivery. The DF will open in December 2019 for providers to qualify and then call offs will commence from April 2020 with a view to having provision ready to go in 2021 once we have moved to the reorganised National Probation Service. We will seek EOIs from interested providers as and when the call offs take place.

3) 3SC continue to seek suitable DWP opportunities but at present there are no planned tenders.

We publish any calls for expressions of interest to deliver new contracts on our website after firstly sending out the opportunities to 3SC Members. Do check our website regularly to see if there are opportunities that you would like to get involved in.

Andy Shields, Head of Business Development, 3SC.