Invitation to Tender – Opportunity Sheffield
ESF Pathways to Success – Priority 1.4 (Adult)
ESF Ambition – Priority 1.4 (Adult)
Opportunity Sheffield wishes to commission therapy services to provide wraparound support for its Ambition and Pathways to Success employment programmes, which are part-funded by the European Social Fund.
Tenders are now live on YORtender in respect of two funding opportunities, one to provide support for participants on Ambition and one to provide support for participants on Pathways to Success.
Ambition provides keyworker support for Homeless people, Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Parents and Carers returning to the workplace, and Ex-offenders.
Pathways to Success provides keyworker support for 18-24 NEETs, people from BAME backgrounds, people with acute and non-acute health barriers (including learning difficulties and disabilities, ASD, mental health challenges and physical disabilities, economically inactive people and other jobseekers who are experiencing difficulty accessing the labour market
Brief overview of projects
The successful bidder(s) shall deliver an intensive therapeutic programme designed to support people with a number of barriers to employment. Sessions will be on a 1:1 basis, typically 45-60 minutes per session, for between 4 to 8 weeks. Additional sessions may be agreed by the Contract Manager on a case-by-case basis. The approach to therapy will be through a form of counselling or talking therapy.
The main aim of ESF Therapy Service sessions is to focus on exploring and breaking down the participant’s barriers to employment, therefore enabling the individual to move much closer to employment than when they started these sessions, building a foundation to enable positive engagement with the ESF employment support service or other employment services and later sustain employment.
This service is not to be available or be suitable as a medium or long term approach to therapy; any participants who would benefit from longer term therapeutic services may or may not conclude this programme before being signposted to appropriate services such as NHS Sheffield IAPT https://iaptsheffield.shsc.nhs.uk/ or self-funded services. The provider(s) will be required to have a good knowledge of broader mental health services within Sheffield and online.
All clients will be referred from Ambition or Pathways to Success. Upon referral, the provider(s) will be required to contact the participant directly to arrange their therapy sessions. It is expected that the participant will continue receiving support from Ambition or Pathways to Success, as appropriate, whilst undertaking their therapy sessions.
Staff delivering the service shall be suitably qualified and experienced therapists or counsellors.
Services may be delivered online, face to face or a combination of both throughout the programme, however consideration must be made for participant need and for accommodating participants who do not have suitable ICT access or space to engage with remote services. The provider(s) shall be responsible for ensuring this space for the participant, which may be supported by the referring ESF Employment Support Service. The provider(s) shall be able to deliver the service face to face if this is in the best interest of the participant.
Submit a funding bid
For further information, including timescales and the evaluation process, please see the full specifications on the YORtender procurement portal:
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