Social Work England are seeking to establish a Contract with a provider, who will complete the graphic design of various publications for us. Some of these publications may also require Copy-editing support.
We may also require the provision of various services on an Ad hoc basis, including: photography services, Copywriting, Brand refreshes and associated design assets, and the Translation of written information into easy read documents with accompanying imagery.
Social Work England does not have an in-house audit capability. Our aim is to appoint a provider of internal audit services commencing April 2023. We are looking for a provider who can work in partnership with Social Work England to deliver the core internal audit brief to a high standard.
We are committed to learning about social work and to gathering data and intelligence about the profession and people's experiences. We want to make a unique contribution to the evolution of regulation and provide valuable assurance of and leadership to the social work profession. We intend this research to inform our work and provide a detailed picture of social work in England which will enrich our policymaking and communications activity in the next period.
The specific objective of this procurement is to interrogate public perceptions of social work, and of Social Work England as a regulator, in 2022.
*Please note - Social Work England have a set budget for this procurement of £50,000.00 including VAT*
As part of our responsibility to investigate concerns about Social Workers fitness to practise we may require Social Workers to undergo a Medical Assessment where concerns are raised about their health. Social Work England does not have the in-house capability to deliver specialist Services. Therefore, we are looking to contract with a Service Provider who will work in partnership with us deliver a robust Medical Assessment Service and provide quantifiable evidence as to whether a registrant's mental and/or physical health is of sufficient concern as to warrant their fitness to practise impaired.
Social Work England are committed to learning about social work and understanding the profession and people's experiences. We want to make a unique contribution to the evolution of regulation, inform our work as the new specialist regulator and provide a detailed picture of social work in England. Research forms a key aspect of this goal.
The objective of this tender exercise/procurement is to undertake a research study into the supervision and assessment of practice learning, including but not limited to the role of the practice educator in qualifying and post-qualifying social work education in England. From this piece of research, we want to understand:
* the experiences, including attitudes, perceptions and barriers, of social workers who undertake the supervision and assessment of practice learning;
*what motivates social workers to qualify as practice educators, or to continue as practice educators, and the barriers to recruiting and retaining social workers to undertake this role;
*perceptions of existing standards and training requirements in relation to practice education and the role of the practice educator in England across pre-registration and post-qualifying education;
*what lessons we can learn from existing models of supervision and assessment of practice learning from education providers and employers across England ;
*what lessons we can learn from existing research into practice education, supervision and assessment of practice learning in England;
*how to develop our approach to regulating social workers who undertake the supervision and assessment of practice learning;
**Please note - our maximum budget for this procurement/contract is £50,000.00 (inc. VAT)
Social Work England are committed to learning about social work, and to gathering data and intelligence about the profession and people's experiences. We want to make a unique contribution to the evolution of regulation and provide valuable assurance of and leadership to the social work profession. We intend for this research to inform our work and provide a detailed picture of social work in England which will enrich our approach in the next period and inform decisions about whether further user in-sights work and/or communications are appropriate.
***Please note that there is a strict budget of £48,000.00 inc. VAT for this tender opportunity/contract***
Social Work England are seeking to establish a contract with a legal services firm ("the Potential Provider") who can work in partnership with Social Work England's legal team to deliver an external legal support function which will complement the existing support delivered by the Legal Team. Please see the associated Invitation to Tender for further details.
Additional information:
Any potential providers that are wishing to show interest in/apply for this this tender, should please visit our supplier portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/socialworkengland
Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No
Social Work England are seeking to establish a contract with a legal services firm ("the Potential Provider") who can work in partnership with Social Work England’s legal team to deliver an external legal support function which will complement the existing support delivered by the Legal Team. Please see the associated Invitation to Tender for further details.
Social Work England are seeking to establish a contract with a legal services firm ("the Potential Provider") who can work in partnership with Social Work England's legal team to deliver an external legal support function which will complement the existing support delivered by the Legal Team.
Additional information:
All Potential Providers that wish to show interest in/apply for this this tender opportunity, should please visit our e-Procurement supplier portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/socialworkengland. The associated Invitation to Tender provides full details around this procurement.
Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No
Social Work England are looking to contract with an external service provider ("the successful Potential Provider") who will conduct a review of our culture and behaviours framework. This review will provide critical insights into our current behaviours, identify areas for enhancement, and facilitate strategic improvements that align with our organisational objectives. Particularly in terms of our leadership development, allowing us to assess our current behaviours and understand our organisational culture in order to identify our strengths and areas for development. Understanding, assessing, and refreshing these behaviours can directly impact job satisfaction and employee engagement, as well as enhance performance and productivity. We are also looking to understand and improve how our culture feeds into our independent decision.
The behaviours framework will be very important to our leadership development. An integral part of the successful Potential Providers work will include providing us with recommendations for a behaviour's framework and, aligned to this, a leadership development programme which will support out behaviours and culture. The insights we gain and outputs from this review will help inform our future strategies, aid us in working towards our objectives, and provide a framework to support and sustain our culture.
The successful Potential Provider will be required to gain a clear understanding of our organisation, culture and our vision, and provide a behaviours framework and recommendations for a leadership programme that are fit for purpose in line with our organisation and people strategy priorities:
All Potential Providers that wish to show interest in/apply for this this tender opportunity, should please visit our e-Procurement supplier portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/socialworkengland. The associated Invitation to Tender provides full details around this procurement.
Additional information:
All Potential Providers that wish to show interest in/apply for this this tender opportunity, should please visit our e-Procurement supplier portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/socialworkengland. The associated Invitation to Tender provides full details around this procurement.
Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No
As an organisation, Social Work England is committed to learning about social work and under-standing the profession and people's experiences. We want to make a unique contribution to the evolution of regulation, inform our work as the new specialist regulator and provide a detailed picture of social work in England. Research forms a key aspect of this goal.
The objective of this procurement is to explore how seriousness relates to fitness to practise proceedings and their outcomes, with a focus on social work in England. From this research we want to understand:
* How Social Work England's fitness to practise outcomes to date have explored and described the concept of seriousness.
* How different health and social care regulators' case law and guidance de-fine seriousness throughout their fitness to practise processes, and how this has evolved over time.
* How the Professional Standards Authority approaches seriousness, and how this has evolved over time.
* How seriousness is understood and interpreted within complex aspects of fitness to practise such as misconduct, dishonesty and public interest.
* How decision makers understand and utilise the concepts, guidance, and case law in relation to seriousness throughout Social Work England's fit-ness to practise proceedings.
* What 'human factors', such as the workplace environment, should (or should not) be considered by Social Work England when considering seriousness in fitness to practise proceedings?
* We expect that the research will involve 4 workstreams:
Seriousness from a regulatory perspective (workstream 1)
This workstream will be focused on the understanding of seriousness by professional regulators across the UK. We envision a literature review including a review of relevant case law (including case law on misconduct), as well as published and internal guidance from Social Work England and other regulators, including previous social work regulators in England.
Seriousness in professional context (workstream 2)
This workstream will further explore how seriousness is understood and applied by professional regulators across the UK. We would expect qualitative data collection with health and social care regulators to explore their guidance and understanding of seriousness within the context of the professions that they regulate.
Seriousness in social work fitness to practise (workstream 3)
This workstream will focus on how seriousness is defined and used by decision makers, and how this has changed over time. We would expect an analy-sis of decisions from Social Work England fitness to practise cases and fit-ness to practise cases from prior regulators of social work (where available).
Seriousness across the fitness to practise process (workstream 4)
This workstream will focus on the level of alignment between different under-standings of seriousness, at different stages in our fitness to practise process. We...
Additional information:
All Potential Providers that wish to show interest in/apply for this this tender opportunity, should please visit our e-Procurement supplier portal at: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/socialworkengland. The associated Invitation to Tender which you will be able to gain access to will provide full details around this procurement.
Is a Recurrent Procurement Type? : No
Social Work England is looking to Contract with an external Service Bidder 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 proceedings.
We require an emotional support telephone line for social workers, witnesses and complainants (those that raise Fitness to Practise concerns) and those affected by the Fitness to Practise process, that they can access by phone, and other methods, such as email or live chat/web chat 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
While the service will be open to all involved in Fitness to Practise and their family members, and some may need to use the service once or regularly, the provider will ensure that usage is appropriate and managed in a way that ensures callers don't develop a dependency upon the service and contact ends at an appropriate stage (for example 3 months after the Fitness to Practise matter has concluded).
Social Work England are looking for a cleaning and a general maintenance provider who can deliver consistent, high-quality service, maintain a safe and healthy work environment, and provide environmentally friendly cleaning and maintenance solutions.
Daily cleaning services will be required with after-hours cleaning preferred to minimize disruption to office staff. Deep cleaning services will be scheduled with prior notification given.
Three qualified cleaning personals are required to work Monday to Friday with variable hours to be agreed upon contract implementation.
The scope of work will include but not limited to:
- Daily cleaning,
- Waste disposal,
- Carpet cleaning,
- Window washing,
- Periodic deep cleaning,
- Sanitization of high-traffic area.
Cleaning personnel will be required to wear the necessary PPE and follow the health and safety guidelines when undertaking their duties.
Social Work England intends to procure a suitably qualified and experienced training provider to design, deliver and continuously improve a comprehensive training programme for Adjudicators, Legal Advisers (Partners) and Case Examiners involved in Fitness to Practise (FtP) decision-making. The programme will support newly appointed decision-makers through mandatory induction training and provide ongoing annual refresher training for existing cohorts, ensuring consistency, legal soundness and quality across all FtP decisions.
The appointed provider will be required to develop, implement and deliver training covering the statutory and regulatory framework applicable to Social Work England's adjudication and case examination functions. This includes but is not limited to: the Fitness to Practise Rules 2019 (as amended), the Social Workers Regulations 2018 (as amended), relevant regulatory case law, approaches to impairment, preliminary issues, procedural fairness, managing unrepresented registrants, avoiding bias, the realistic prospect test, and drafting clear and reasoned decisions. The training must incorporate interactive and practice-based learning, with anonymised examples where appropriate.
Training for FtP Partners will be delivered remotely. Training for Case Examiners will be delivered through a blend of remote, hybrid or in-person sessions, including an initial two-day programme. The contract includes the development of webinars, e-learning modules, virtual workshops, peer-led learning forums and reflective practice groups to broaden access through Social Work England's digital learning platform. All training must incorporate principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, including relevant legal duties, unconscious bias mitigation and cultural competence.
The provider will collaborate closely with Social Work England's Fitness to Practise, Legal and ED&I teams in planning, reviewing and refining the training offer. They will also be responsible for supplying training materials, pre-reading, recordings and an annual programme of delivery. Ongoing evaluation and quarterly performance reporting will be required, alongside participation in continuous improvement activity informed by appeals, Professional Standards Authority learning and internal quality assurance.
The initial contract term will be three years, with the option to extend for a further two years.
As part of its statutory duty to investigate concerns about the fitness to practise of social workers, Social Work England may, where appropriate, require registrants to undergo a medical assessment, particularly in cases where concerns relate to a registrant's mental or physical health. As Social Work England does not possess the internal capacity to deliver these specialist services, it is seeking to appoint a suitably qualified and experienced Service Provider to work in partnership to deliver a high-quality and robust Medical Assessment Service. The appointed provider will be responsible for conducting comprehensive medical assessments and producing clear, quantifiable, evidence-based reports that determine whether a registrant's mental and/or physical health may be impaired to the extent that it could affect their fitness to practise. Experts may also be required, when necessary, to provide witness testimony in fitness to practise hearings.
The Authority is looking for two 2 Suppliers to deliver the following as part of the Service:
a. conduct further investigation and prepare cases for Fitness to Practise hearings or meetings;
b. undertake pre-hearing case management procedures in accordance with agreed performance targets and in collaboration with other parties to the hearing; and
c. ensure the presentation of cases before adjudicators at hearings (those hearings are predominantly carried out remotely using video conferencing software but can, on occasion, be in-person at our offices in Sheffield).
Over a period of 3 - 5 years, the Authority aims to work with the Suppliers to eliminate the current backlog of circa 400 cases awaiting a final hearing. By the end of this period, the intention is to have worked successfully in partnership with the Suppliers to both eliminate the backlog and to be managing a 'steady state' of circa 150 cases being processed per annum.
Social Work England is looking to contract with an external Service Provider to deliver an emotional support service to those affected by fitness to practise proceedings.
This service will be accessible by telephone as the primary route, with additional channels such as email, WhatsApp and live or web-based chat, for social workers, witnesses and complainants (those that raise fitness to practise concerns) and others affected by the fitness to practise process. This service must be accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Social Work England is commissioning independent research to strengthen its understanding of practice‑based learning across qualifying routes into social work in England. This work supports Social Work England's role as the regulator of social work education and training, and will inform future regulatory standards, guidance and quality assurance activity.
The requirement is for the design and delivery of a mixed‑methods research study exploring perceptions and experiences of practice‑based learning, including statutory and non‑statutory placements. The research will examine issues of placement quality, placement sufficiency and variation across regions, qualifying routes and workforce contexts.
The supplier will be expected to engage with a range of stakeholders, which may include education providers, employers, practice educators, placement providers and newly qualified social workers. Research activity is likely to include a combination of desk‑based review and primary research methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups and/or case studies.
Key outputs will include a midpoint findings presentation, a final written report suitable for publication, and a final presentation of findings. The supplier must ensure proportionate but robust research governance, inclusive methods, and compliance with ethical standards and UK GDPR.
The contract is expected to commence on 19 June 2026 and conclude by 19 December 2026. The estimated value of the contract is £50,000. Full technical requirements are set out in the specification.