Supported Living Tenders
What Are Supported Living Tenders?
Supported living tenders support individuals who need assistance to establish or maintain independent living, either in solo accommodation or shared tenancies. To the unfamiliar it may seem that this ‘sub-sector’ is just another version of home care (see more about home care tenders HERE). However, supported living services place more emphasis on enabling and empowering individuals to move into or remain in their own homes, increasing their social capacity, and often focus on providing support to a certain group of cohorts, including:
- Young People, Adults or Older People
- Care Leavers / Looked After Children (LAC)
- Individuals with Learning Disabilities, Physical Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Mental Health Needs, Behaviour That Challenges, Complex Needs, Acquired Brain Injury, Sensory Impairments, and many other needs and conditions
- Individuals in Recovery from Addiction and/or Substance Misuse
- Ex-Offenders
- Veterans
- Homeless & Those at Risk of Homelessness
Who Commissions Supported Living Tenders?
Local authorities and housing associations are typical commissioners of such services. Support provision within housing association schemes is sometimes outsourced and commissioned via the tendering process, just as is the case with local authority contracts and regional frameworks.
Inevitably, commissioners will establish their own delivery models. Some will split tenders into different service categories, which may be identified as lots. Quite often we may see these lots based on the level and complexity of need.
Common Terminology
Terminology and contract names can often vary from commissioner to commissioner, with the following terms interchanged and/or applied to supported living:
- Supported Accommodation Tenders
- Supported Lodgings Tenders
- Semi-independent Living Tenders
- Semi-independent Accommodation & Support Tenders
- Floating Support Tenders
- Housing Related Support Services Tenders
- Unregulated Support & Accommodation Tenders
What is Normally Involved in a Supported Living Tender?
Supported living tenders can vary quite dramatically, both in terms of complexity and structure, and will be based on the individual needs of the area. There are certainly no hard and fast rules! Some procurement models will:
- Be run as Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS), allowing providers to join an existing framework periodically, or at any point during the contract lifetime. See our GLOSSARY for more info on terminology.
- Look to establish a framework of providers, others will just look to award single contracts to cover certain geographically designated areas
- Require providers to deliver the support element only, others both support and accommodation, whilst some may allow providers to bid for both
- Require providers to be registered with the appropriate regulatory body to provide regulated services – namely the Care the Care Quality Commision (CQC) in England, Care Inspectorate in Scotland, the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW), and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in Northern Ireland. Others will be looking to supply unregulated activities and so registration will not be necessary.
Where bidders intend to offer accommodation, there may be stipulations relating to the location of the accommodation. Most will require this to be located within stated boundaries, or will permit accommodation falling within a designated radius/neighbouring borough.
Other criteria will include the possession of licensing agreements and licenses for houses in multiple occupation (HMO), occupancy and leasehold agreements, and the ability to evidence that full safety checks have been conducted, including PAT tests, tests under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), gas safety checks, energy efficiency checks, etc.
Evaluation may be based on a combination of quality and price i.e. the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT), although it will sometimes come down to quality alone. Typically, assessment will focus on themes which may include previous relevant experience with the specified cohort, safeguarding, staffing and capacity, how you go about promoting independence, community integration and social value.
Quite often responses will need to be given within an allocated word count, which in itself is a skill, so if you find yourselves struggling, our team of expert bid writers will be able to help.
Supported Living Bid Writing Is Our Speciality
A really good question to ask when first looking into a supported living tender is ‘Do our objectives align with those of the commissioner?’ To be successful it’s vital to fully understand what is being asked of you, so you can be sure that it’s a contract you’ll be able to deliver. We can help you in these initial stages, working through the key details to determine whether this is the right opportunity for you.
For those who choose to bid, our professional team can help. As specialists working on bids within health and social care, supported living is an area in which we are well versed.
Contract lifetimes will vary, with some lasting up to 10 years if extended, so if your bid is unsuccessful, you could be left out in the cold until the tender is released again. Putting the appropriate resources into your bid can make all of the difference. Check out our latest WIN RATE to see how successful we’ve been over recent months.
Need Help Writing Your Supported Living Tender?
Your Tender Team specialises in delivering expert tendering services to health and social care providers, including supported living service providers. See our FULL TENDER WRITE service page for more information on how we can help.
If you would like us to quote you for how much our Full Tender Write service is based on the tender you wish to bid, please use our ‘Get A Quote’ tab on the right handside of the screen now.
We Can Structure, Review & Submit Your Tender
If you wish to write your own bid, we can support you at every stage of your response. See our REVIEW & EVALUATION service page for more information.
Use our ‘Get A Quote’ tab today and one of our team members will be in touch with a quotation.
We Won £500m+ Of Tenders In The East Midlands In Two-Years. See What The Press Had To Say
Don’t just take our word for it! Your Tender Team has been in the press a fair bit recently. Check out one of the articles on Business Live HERE.