The Essex Carers Hub

What the buyer is asking for

The Essex Carers Hub (formerly the Essex Carers Core Offer of Support (ECCOS)). Essex County Council ("the Council") is committed to delivering high-quality, sustainable and preventative services that improve outcomes for residents and reduce inequalities. The Essex Carers Hub ("the Service") will support these ambitions by ensuring unpaid carers are identified early, recognised, valued and able to access timely support that promotes their wellbeing, resilience and independence. Through partnership working and a strengths-based approach, the Service will help carers improve or maintain their quality of life and prevent the escalation of need wherever possible. The Council is seeking a Provider, or lead provider working with delivery partners, to deliver the Essex Carers Hub, a countywide carers specialist support service that improves the wellbeing, resilience and quality of life of unpaid carers aged 18 and over. The Service also includes a counselling offer for Young Carers and Young Adult Carers under the age of 18 who are referred by Essex Youth Service. For the purposes of this tender a Carer is defined as follows; "A person who provides unpaid care and support to a family member, partner, friend or neighbour who could not manage without that support due to illness, frailty, disability, mental health need, substance misuse or other support needs. All the care they give is unpaid. A carer can be a young carer (under the age of 18) or an adult carer (over the age of 18). That is ordinarily resident in the Council's administrative area" The following services are in scope of this procurement; - Specialist Information Advice and Guidance - Coaching and Counselling - Peer Support Groups - Wellbeing grants (ordinarily up to £300) - Training and Learning Offer - Single Point of Contact - Employment support (2 year pilot) Please note that authority for carers assessments and personal budgets will still remain with the Council. The services shall be available to Carers resident within the administrative area of Essex County Council, but will have the scope to be expanded to the administrative areas of Southend-on-Sea City Council and Thurrock Council. Following feedback from Carers and the market, the contract is being tendered as a single contract rather than being divided into lots. Carers have expressed a preference for a consistent and co-ordinated service, with clear accountability and minimal disruption. This approach would support continuity of service as it is expected that carers will access more than one of the service elements at any one time, as well as clearer communication and a consistent approach to meeting Carer needs. Please note the contract value includes circa £500k per year available for the provision of the Wellbeing Grants that will be administered by the Provider.

How this is scored

Published by the buyer. A winning response is written to these weightings, not to the question.

• 40%pricePrice
• 50%qualityQuality
• 10%qualitySocial Value

What you must already have

Conditions of participation. These are pass or fail, so check them before writing anything.

• economic

  The Bidder must have in place, or commit to obtain prior to award of the contract, the following insurance cover to the values stated below in respect of any one claim or series of claims arising out of one incident, Employer's (Compulsory) Liability Insurance = £5,000,000 Public Liability Insurance = £10,000,000 Professional Indemnity Insurance = £500,000 If the Bidder is a commercial organisation subject to the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, they must confirm that they are fully compliant of the act before award of the contract. The Bidder must not have had any finding of unlawful discrimination been made against your organisation by an Employment Tribunal, an Employment Appeal Tribunal or any other court (or in comparable proceedings in any jurisdiction other than the UK). The Bidder must not have been convicted of breaching environmental legislation, or had any notice served upon it, in the last three years by any environmental regulator or authority (including local authority). The Bidder must have a Health and Safety Policy that complies with current legislative requirements.

• technical

  The Bidder must be able to submit invoices and receive orders electronically. The Bidder must have a named manager within their organisation, who has a demonstrable knowledge of safeguarding policy and who is responsible for safeguarding at the highest level. The Bidder must have a current safeguarding policy that has been reviewed in the last two years, and has the following in place as a minimum standard: A strategic and/or corporate plan that references safeguarding vulnerable adults and children, - Adequately apportioned resources to meet safeguarding responsibilities; - Clear lines of accountability for staff through the organisation to named safeguarding person/s; - Systems in place to embed safeguarding across all commissioned/contracted services; - The organisation has a safeguarding adults/child policy and procedure in place that provides clear guidance on how to recognise and respond to abuse and is easily accessible and regularly updated; - Details of when to report to social care/police and timelines involved; - Guidance for staff, who work with your people or vulnerable adults with disability (where applicable) - Policies for transporting young people or vulnerable adults where required; - Specifically for care of young people (residential/fostering), guidance for staff/carers regarding the management of the risk of sexual exploitation, young people missing from care, and how to manage bullying behaviour including social networking sites; - E-safety policies and procedures are in place for adults/young people/children and staff; - There is a complaints policy and procedure in place; - 'Whistle Blowing' procedures for staff to raise safeguarding concerns against colleagues or managers are clearly understood and correctly followed where required; - There is a procedure in place for managing abuse of vulnerable adults/child protection allegations made against staff. Including situations where the actions of an individual in their personal life may indicate that their behaviour could be a risk of harm to children they work with e.g. perpetrators of domestic violence, neglect or abuse of their own children; - For those aged 16 and over the organisation can demonstrate that consideration of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) - For those aged 18 and over the organisation can demonstrate that consideration of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) is an integral part of relevant decision making and the safeguarding process. The Bidder must have a current safe recruitment policy which includes: - Evidence that the policy is up to date and covers how to recruit safely for staff who have contact with children/vulnerable adults and which follows ECC/LSCB/LSAB recruitment standards; - Human Resources and recruiting staff follow safe recruitment practices that demonstrate appropriate checks are carried out before staff are employed and induction and appraisal systems are in place; - Policies on when Disclosure and Barring Service checks are necessary; - Adherence to the Disclosure and Barring Service Referral process; - Requirement for job applications and interviews to be completed and recorded (face to face interviews). Verification of identify and qualifications, which can be evidenced by audit activity; - Professional and character references are obtained (requirement for 2 references); - Previous employment history is checked. Any anomalies or discrepancies are taken up; - Induction and supervision procedures are in place. The organisation has procedures to manage and record positive disclosures on DBS checks; - The organisation has procedures in place state when cases should be referred to the DBS; - The organisations audits/quality assures its recruitment practice; - The organisation can demonstrate that agencies commissioned to provide services have safer recruitment in place; - Safer recruitment standards are embedded in those contracts, and adherence to these standards is checked as part of the contract management process. The Bidder must have a safeguarding training programme in place and that training is accessed by all those who have a role in recruitment staff who will have contact with children/families/vulnerable adults. In addition, please confirm that training is systematically evaluated and reviewed and impact outcomes used to improve future training programmes. - Safeguarding is mandatory and covered effectively within inductions for all staff who will have contact with children/families/vulnerable adults. It should cover familiarisation with safeguarding responsibilities and how to recognise and respond to possible abuse or neglect; - The induction includes the awareness of the complaints and "whistle blowing" procedures; - Training includes temporary/agency staff; - All members of staff who have contact with children/families/vulnerable adults have completed their safeguarding induction within the appropriate timescale; - There is effective supervision and support for staff engaged in safeguarding children/families/vulnerable adults work; - Safeguarding learning and development opportunities are provided to all staff at a level appropriate to their role; - The organisation ensures that all safeguarding training is suitable quality assured; - Learning from Serious Case Reviews (SCRs), Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) and other safeguarding reviews and audits are disseminated and acted upon effectively; - The organisation responds to and learns from national and local developments and guidance relating to safeguarding children/vulnerable adults. Bidders are required to outline their organisation's management structure with specific details of management levels, experience, qualifications and length of service of the principal managers which have enabled them to undertake similar services. This should include qualifications of staff delivering the counselling, learning and development and employment support. Bidder are required to identify the resources you routinely draw on which have enabled you to undertake or provide similar requirements, clearly indicating internal and external resources (e.g. sub-contracting, equipment, facilities, recruitment, work placement or apprenticeship schemes, volunteers, employment of people with learning difficulties etc.) The Bidder must have in place or commit to obtain prior to award of the contract a license to use the Carers Star.

How contested is this?

Buyers publish how many bids they received. Across 12 comparable procurements we can tell you the typical field size, how often one of these goes uncontested, and whether the buyer awards on price or on quality.

Timeline

4 published dates · Europe/London

1. Tender notice publishedtoday

   6 Oct 2026, 20:06 BST
2. Clarification questions byin 28 days

   3 Nov 2026, 23:59 GMT
3. Submission deadlinein 34 days

   10 Nov 2026, 12:00 GMT
4. Award decision expected byin 90 days

   4 Jan 2027, 23:59 GMT

Commercial outcome and contract awards

Nothing awarded yet

Notice history

3 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender

1. Pipeline or early engagement notice28 Jul 2026, 12:33 BST071181-2026
2. Notice published12 Aug 2026, 18:21 BST076985-2026
3. Tender notice6 Oct 2026, 20:06 BST094482-2026

Documents

• Tender notice on Find a Tender