UK Public Sector Contracts & Tenders

Social Work England is looking to Contract with an external Service Provider who can support us to deliver against our objectives and achieve our ambitions by delivering an emotional support telephone line to those affected by Fitness to Practise. An emotional support telephone line for social workers, witnesses and complainants (those that raise Fitness to Practise concerns) affected by the Fitness to Practise process, that they can access by phone, live chat/web chat 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Social Work England is seeking an experienced training provider to deliver our Fitness to Practise Partner Training Programme. The ideal provider will have a minimum of five years' post-qualification experience in health and social care regulation, with a strong background in delivering high-quality training and expert guidance. The purpose of the programme is to support panel members and legal advisers in making fair, informed, and robust fitness to practise decisions. The training will serve both as an induction for new partners and an annual refresher for existing ones. The programme must cover, but is not limited to, the following key areas: • An overview of the Fitness to Practise Rules 2019 (as amended) and the Social Workers Regulations 2018 (as amended) • An overview of: o the fitness to practise process, including the pre-hearing stages o interim order process o registration appeals o restoration applications o the different hearing and meeting event types • Understanding and applying reasonable adjustments and special measures • Identifying and managing perceived and actual bias in hearings • Understanding and applying the concept of impairment of fitness to practise • A review of relevant regulatory case law • Approaches to effective case management of cases involving unrepresented social workers • Handling hearsay applications and evidence appropriately • Addressing abuse of process arguments • Developing clear, well-reasoned panel decisions and drafting • Balancing public and private decisions, including the appropriate handling of sensitive information • Build on key skills such as effective time management and managing conflict. It is anticipated that the training will be delivered at least annually, with an initial contract period of three years, plus the option to extend for two additional one-year periods. The anticipated total contract value is £425,000.

Social Work England are looking for Supplier/s to prepare cases for Fitness to Practise hearings or meetings and to ensure the presentation of cases before a panel of independent adjudicators. Social Work England currently spends circa £6m per annum on its legal provider for investigation and advocacy services in Fitness to Practise. We expect this level of spend to continue for the first year of the contract, with the potential for the annual value to increase in subsequent years. The volume of new cases each year of the contract is estimated at 150. In addition, we currently have over 400 cases awaiting a hearing.

Introduction - Fitness to Practise As part of our duty to protect the public, if a social worker falls seriously short of the standards expected of them, we can either remove them from the register or restrict what they can do professionally. These powers, given to us by Parliament, cover all registered social workers across both child, family and adult social care. A social workers' fitness to practise may be found impaired for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: • Conduct • Competence • Health • Caution, Conviction or determination by another regulator • Not having the necessary knowledge of English When a service user, member of the public, employers or other public body has a concern about the standard of a social worker's practise, they can raise this with Social Work England. We will undertake to investigate serious matters which may pose a risk to public protection or public confidence in the profession and take action to restrict a social worker's practice in circumstances where it is necessary to do so. The successful Bidder/s will prepare cases for a fitness to practise hearings or meetings and to present cases before Social Work England's adjudicators.

Social Work England are seeking to establish a contract for the provision of cleaning services. It is expected that the successful provider will demonstrate high levels of experience within the sector and will be able to undertake the responsibility for managing and delivering the cleaning services requested.