Expression of InterestForm – Youth & Adult Programmes

The Consultancy Home Counties (TCHC) is delivering several employability and youth support programmes across the East of England region. We are interested in hearing from suitable partner organisations, which have existing infrastructure and can deliver support activity to jobseekers and young people who are not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in one or more of the following Local Authority areas:

  • Bedford Borough
  • Cambridgeshire
  • Central Bedfordshire
  • Essex
  • Hertfordshire
  • Luton
  • Norfolk
  • Peterborough
  • Southend
  • Suffolk
  • Thurrock

If you are interested in working with TCHC on our Youth Programmes, please complete this Expression of Interest (EOI) form and return it to:

Please note that completion of this form does not constitute a contractual agreement between TCHC and your organisation. We may also be asking for additional information as part of our due diligence process.

A.Company Information

Organisation:
Name/Job Title of main Contact:
Contact email:
Contact telephone/mobile number(s):
Website Address:
Address:
Company Registration Number:
UKPRN:
VAT registration number
(if applicable):
Organisation status (plc, ltd, charity, etc.):
Names of Directors:
Years of Trading:
Is your organisation on the SFA Register of Training Organisations (RTO)? / Yes/No
If your application is accepted, do you agree for TCHC to conduct a site visit at your premises prior to the start of delivery activity? / Yes/No
Resources
How many staff does your organisation employ (including associates)?
How many staff members are IAG qualified and at what level (including associates)?
Names of experienced staff that will deliver on this contract (please confirm that you agree to submit their CVs if requested)
Permanent delivery location (& address) in the areas relevant to this contract / Number of staff based at location (please specify wheter they are admin/support staff, IAG, trainers etc) / Number of customers who can be comfortably accommodated at delivery location / Facilities available at location
Quality Standards & Accreditation
Please tick the relevant boxes below
YES / NO / Working towards
Matrix
Merlin
ISO9001
ISO14001
Any other (please provide details)
Please provide the details of who is responsible for quality assurance in your organisation and how you ensure continuous quality improvement in the following core deliveryactivities:
a) Information Advice and Guidance (IAG)
b) Expert use and understanding of local Labour Market Information (LMI)
c) Accredited and non-accredited skills training
d) Motivating and supporting learners into sustainable employment
e) Effective partnership working and referral activities
Does your organisation have a written Complaints Procedure in place (Yes/No)? If you do not have a procedure, please explain how customer complaints, concerns and feedback about your delivery can be gathered and responded to appropriately on an ongoing basis as part of their continuous quality improvement measures. (maximum 500 words)
Please provide details of your latest Audit(s)/OfSTED or other inspections, including grades, findings, recommendations and, if applicable, implementation of action points. Have there been any sanctions as a result of an inspection? (maximum 500 words)
If your organisation has not been inspected, please give the reasons for this and explain how a high quality of learning within your organisation is achieved and evidenced (maximum 500 words)
Award/Standard (incl. Grade) / Date first awarded / Next renewal date

B.Delivery Experience

Please provide a short description of your organisation, including your background and what you feel are your key strengths relevant to the delivery of this contract (maximum 500 words)
Do you have any direct experience of delivering apprenticeships, (accredited and non-accredited) skills or employability training and/or any other support activity(incl. mentoring & coaching) to our target groups (i.e. unemployed adults (19+), individuals facing redundancy, 14-24 year old NEETs,)?
Yes/No (If yes, please complete the table below)
Contract start + end dates / Programme overview / Targets / Targets achieved
(%tage of original target) / Total funding value
Starts / Training completed / Jobs
If you have not previously delivered any similar provision, please provide information of any other experience relevant to this contract
Have you worked with TCHC before – if so, please provide details
Yes/No
Please provide information on customer groups that you have previously worked with, e.g. Black and Minority Ethnicity (BME), learners with a disability or learning difficulty, older learners, ex-offenders, lone parents, migrants with English language needs etc. and what specific arrangements you have made to accommodate these (maximum 500 words)
Please provide information on the sectors to which you have delivered skills training (maximum 500 words)
Please provide details of your existing links or partnerships with apprenticeship and training providers and how your organisation will identify and engage with learners and source employment opportunities (maximum 500 words)

References

Please provide us with at least 3 client references, including their names and contact details who TCHC may contact as part of this assessment process (You can attach these in a separate document).

C.Policies, Insurances & Finance

Health & Safety

Do you have a written Health and Safety at work policy (Yes/No)? N.B it is a legal requirement for 5 or more employees? If you do not have a policy, please explain why and how you ensure that health and safety is maintained at your workplace. (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No
Has your organisation during the last three years been prosecuted or had a notice served for contravention of the Health and Safety at Work act 1974 or associated regulations and/or has your organisation during the last three years been the subject of a formal investigation by the Health and Safety Executive or similar national body charged with improving health and safety standards? If Yes, please give details and explain the impact on the service delivered by your organisation (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No
Do you have a written Safeguarding policy (Yes/No)? The policy should, as a minimum, address the following:
a) Set out what arrangements are in place to minimise risk
b) Detail how customer health and safety will be ensured, and
c) Detail provider security and confidentiality arrangements.
If you do not have a policy, please explain why and how you ensure that the safeguarding of learners and employees is maintained at your workplace. (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No

Sustainable Development

Do you have a written Sustainable Development policy (Yes/No)? If you do not have a policy, please explain what steps your organisation is taking to deliver training in anefficient and environmentally sustainable way - specifically in relation to waste produced, energy efficiency, carbon emissions and sustainable transport. (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No

Data Security

Do you have a written Data Security policy (Yes/No)? If you do not have a policy, please explain how you ensure that personal information is protected and that data is stored and/or processed as part of this contract(maximum 500 words)
Yes/No

Equality and Diversity

Is it your policy as an employer to comply with your statutory obligations under current equal opportunities legislation (Yes/No)? N.B Your practice must not treat one group of people less favourably than others because of their race, gender, age, religion or belief, disabilities or sexual orientation in relation to decisions to recruit, train or promote employees. (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No
Does your organisation have a written Equality and Diversity policy (Yes/No)? If you do not have a policy, please explain why and how you ensure that your organisation meets statutory requirements? (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No
In the last three years, has any finding of unlawful discrimination been made against your organisation by any court, industrial tribunal or Equality Commission and/or (also during the last three years) has your organisation been the subject of a formal investigation by the Equality Commission on grounds of alleged unlawful discrimination? If Yes, please provide details and what steps you took as a consequence of the findings. Maximum 500 words)
Yes/No

Environmental Management

Does your organisation have a written Environmental policy in place (Yes/No)? If you do not have a policy, please explain why and how you ensure that your organisation meets statutory requirements? (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No
Has your organisation been prosecuted, in the last 3 years, for any environmental offence - or have any case pending? If ‘yes’ please give details and explain the impact on the service delivered by your organisation (for instance, has your company initiated any processes or actions in relation to improving your environmental performance. If so, please provide the details of the person responsible). (maximum 500 words)
Yes/No

Insurances and Finances

Please provide details of your insurances (e.g. Public Liability Insurance, Professional Indemnity Insurance) and the size of cover provided.
Name of insurance / Insurance Number / Amount (£) / Name of provider
Employer’s Liability
Public Liability
Professional Indemnity
Other
Please provide details of your company’s turnoverand profitover the last 3 years. If necessary, TCHC may require further financial information.
Month
Year
In order to support TCHC’s due diligence process, please confirm that you would be prepared, if requested, provide audited accounts of your organisation for the last three years or other financial statements. If not, please state the reasons for this.

D.Training Provision

Please provide us with a list of courses and qualifications you currently offer (incl. Level, number of GLHs, Content, Learning Aims Reference number). You can attach this in a separate document.
Course/Subject / Mode of delivery (e.g. block, continuous) / Length/GLHs / Number of learners per course / Additional Comments
Please provide information on the subject areas in you have delivered skills training (maximum 500 words)
Please provide details about your mode of delivery (i.e. flexibility of your provision to meet learner needs, dealing with disabled learners, young parents and response time to training requests, additional learner support). (maximum 500 words)
Please provide us with an indication of the number of customers you would be able to support under this contract (i.e. maximum capacity)

Requirements

TCHC will seek to work with organisations that can deliver an end-to-end service or elements of this programme. Partners should have existing infrastructure to deliver in all or some of the areas listed above.

Particular emphasis will be put on the proven ability of partner organisations to deliver accredited functional skills and vocational training to progress learners into sustainable employment. It is, therefore, of crucial importance that partners can demonstrate previous delivery of SFA/EFA/DWP/Local Authority or other funded skills training provision and that they have existing employer relationships (and the experience and ability to establish new ones) in order to identify suitable employment opportunities for learners on our programmes.

Assessment Criteria and Methodology

TCHC will select appropriate partner organisations by applying a fair and transparent process in line with the Merlin Standard Code of Conduct.Completed EoI forms will be assessed by TCHC’s business development and delivery teams. They will be subject to a formal qualitative evaluation using the methodology and criteria as outlined below.

TCHC will identify appropriate partner organisations that are able to demonstrate the required capacity, delivery capabilities and geographic coverage. Successful and unsuccessful providers will be notified, although this is an open partnership request and no deadline is set for submission of completed forms.

Weighting

Scores will be weighted in terms of importance as per the table below:

Section / Scores 0-10 / Weighting
  1. Experience & Key Strengths
/ 25%
  1. Infrastructure, Capability & Capacity
/ 25%
  1. Historical Performance
/ 25%
  1. Quality Assurance, Inspections & Grades
/ 15%
  1. Financial Information
/ 10%

NB: 1. All received EoI forms that score 0 (zero) on any of the scored sections will automatically be

eliminated from the process and not be considered further.

/ Version 1.0
This project is financed by the European Union /