Soft Market Test for Special Education Needs & Disability: Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION

Leicester City Council is considering commissioning a Special Educational Needs & Disability Information Advice Support (SENDIASS). This will be to provide information advice and support for those families and young people who require additional support to access education, health, and social care, due to a special educational need and disability (SEND). The service is designed to meet the statutory duties on provision of information advice and support under the Children and Families act (2014) and SENDIASS Minimum standards (2018). It is anticipated that this service would need to commence by the 1st of July 2025.

As part of the commissioning process, the authority is undertaking a soft market test. This gives potential providers and other stakeholders the opportunity to express their interests and feed in their views about the potential service model and specification principles. The commissioners will use the information to appraise options and further develop the specification.

This process does not constitute a formal tender or other competitive bidding process and will not result in the letting of a Contract. The authority is using this process solely to test the market to gather information and ascertain the level of interest in this particular service. There are therefore no formal criteria which we will use to judge your responses, and it is not our intention to provide any feedback.