DRAFT
CHILD & ADULT SERVICES DEPARTMENT
SERVICE SPECIFICATION
FOR THE PROVISION OF
MENTORING SERVICES FOR CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND
THEIR FAMILIES
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DEFINITIONS AND INTERPRETATION
When they are used in this Specification, the terms and expressions set out
below in the first column have the meanings set out in the second column.
Mentoring
Mentoring is a developmental partnership through which
one person shares knowledge, skills, information and
perspective to foster the personal growth of someone
else. In Hartlepool we would expect a service that
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“Agreement”
Teaches about specific issues
Coaches on a particular skill
Facilitates growth by sharing resources and
networks
Challenges to move beyond his or her comfort
zone
Creates a safe learning environment for taking
risks.
Means the Conditions, Specification and the Support
Plan for individual children and young people.
Integrated Service
A service that has a number of organisations
represented by staff located in one base providing a
range of services in partnership.
Localised Service
Services that can be accessed by people in their own
area.
“Council”
Means Hartlepool Borough Council of Civic Centre
Hartlepool including Child and Adult Services
Department.
“Provider”
Means The service provider and where applicable this
shall include the service provider’s employees, subcontractors, agents, representatives and permitted
assigns and, if the service provider is a consortium or
consortium leader, the consortium members.
“Child” “Young People”
Means a person who receives or who may receive the
or “Young Person”
Service under the terms of this Agreement and is aged
between 0 and 18 (19 in specific cases agreed by the
provider and commissioner).
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“Outcomes”
Means the impacts and end results of the provision of
the Service on young people. They may be general eg.
improve the emotional health & well being of a young
person, where they are based on the priorities and
aspirations for individuals. Whether or not outcomes are
perceived as successful may depend not just on the
activities and skills of the Provider and support workers
but also on the goals and expectations of Source: RIPFA
– Outcome Based Commissioning and Contracting.
“Common Assessment”
Means the delivery of frontline services are based on a
common assessment of need that carried out using a
specific format and leading to clearly identified delivery
pathways. It is a standardised approach to conducting
assessments of children's additional needs and deciding
how these should be met.
“Tier 1 services”
Means universal services for young people.
“Tier 2 services”
Means targeted services for young people.
“Tier 3 services”
Means specialist/targeted services for young people.
“Service”
The Service will provide a Mentoring service that will
include support to individual children and young people
as well as family mentoring where appropriate.
Multi disciplinary Team
Locality teams will be made up from a number of
organisations that bring specific skills together in one
place.
Activities
Things for children and young people to do that are
educational, stimulating, exciting and designed
specifically to meet the emotional and developmental
needs of the participants.
Mentoring Support Plan
A plan for each child or young person or family referred
to the programme that is based on their assessment and
aims at building the resilience and confidence.
Emotional Resilience
"Resilience" is the ability to succeed and prosper even
after facing setbacks and hardships. Resilience is
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especially important during the teen years when children
face new academic challenges, pressure and rejection
from peers, and increasing awareness of their own
limitations. Resilient children bounce back well after they
face these issues. They are less likely to develop
depression, anxiety or unhealthy coping mechanisms
like aggression, eating issues and substance problems.
Some characteristics that encourage resilience are
innate – such as intellectual ability and being outgoing –
but many others can be actively developed.
Self esteem, confidence
Self esteem is your opinion of yourself. High self esteem
and peer relationships
is a good opinion of yourself and low self esteem is a
bad opinion of yourself. It is likely that children and
young people referred to the service will have issues
with their self esteem.
Achievement
something that has been accomplished, esp by hard
work, ability, or heroism
Challenge
requiring full use of the participants abilities or resources
Aspirations
Ensuring that children and young people have ambitions
that are constantly challenged and raised by the
provider.
Diversionary
Activities that move children and young people away
from poor/risky behaviour.
Restorative
Opportunities for children and young people to make
amends for misdemeanours at home or in the
community.
Fun
Activities that children and young people enjoy.
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1.
SECTION A – INTRODUCTION
This is a tender specification for a mentoring service in Hartlepool. This specification
sets out the context of Prevention Services in Hartlepool, describes the services that
are required and sets out the outcomes that need to be measured.
The Early Intervention Strategy is bringing together a range of services from statutory
and third sector partners that focus on supporting families in their own communities.
The Mentoring Service is one of a suite of commissioned services that will work
within this preventative framework. Each of the commissioned services will be
expected to work within the key principles set out in this specification. Such an
approach will enable interested organisations to decide before commissioning if their
principles and aspirations match those of the organisations already in place.
2.
Context of the Mentoring Service in Hartlepool
2.1
National
Early identification and prevention are national priorities and specific funding has
been identified to support local development of services for families. Evidence shows
that intervening early and supporting families to change their behaviour will have a
major impact on the quality of lives in communities and enable funding to be
redirected from expensive responses to crime anti social behaviour and poor
parenting.
2.2
Local Context
Mentoring will be part of a range of early intervention services that make up the Early
Intervention Strategy. Hartlepool believes that an investment in early intervention is
vital across its services for children and families and that all of our Service Providers
should adopt this proactive approach. The early intervention philosophy will underpin
operational elements of the service and ensure that the whole workforce will become
equipped to meet the needs of families as they become apparent.
2.3
Hartlepool Borough Council is currently designing a number of services that
will make up the operational arm of the Boroughs Early Intervention Strategy. One
element of the strategy is the alignment of services that they work together to deliver
a range of interventions and family support as part of a locality based response to
local need. These teams will provide access to a number of services including young
people’s activities that will support families with children 5 -19 years old.
2.4
Data in Hartlepool shows that children and young people face a number of
challenges in living and growing up in some communities in Hartlepool. This
specification is for the development of a service that will focus on:
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enhancing the emotional resilience of children including the raising of self
esteem and confidence;
building aspirations and supporting good educational attainment ;
preventing crime and anti social behaviour;
preventing the misuse of alcohol and drugs by young people.
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2.5
The Service will be delivered in partnership with multi disciplinary locality
teams that are being developed as part of the broader early intervention strategy.
The activity service will be available to children and young people and their families.
It is expected that the successful Service Provider will build the service in partnership
with the locality teams to facilitate referrals and planning.
2.6
The locality teams will provide one entry route into services that are easily
accessed by those in need. The operational model will enable the Service Provider to
establish a community based, targeted activity service for children and young people
aged 5 – 19. In particular this will facilitate family support initiatives that are a
continuing element of the Hartlepool Early Intervention Strategy.
2.7
The Provider will work with the Locality Manager in each locality and partners
to constantly update the local needs assessment to ensure that activity services are
targeted at the right areas of need. This will include a key role in developing the
borough’s response to risky behaviour alongside other partners.
3.
Partnership with the Council
3.1
The specification links to the Children and Young People’s Plan produced by
the Children’s Trust this is an overarching strategic plan that covers the provision of
services to children and young people in Hartlepool (April 2009 – March 2020) and;
the Crime, Disorder and Substance Misuse Strategy 2008-2011 agreed by the Safer
Hartlepool Partnership.
In general the Council requires services that ensure:
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Children and young people have a strong sense of involvement in the nature
and delivery of the service designed to meet their outcomes;
The Service is able to respond flexibly to individual children and young
people’s changing needs and issues on a day-to-day basis.
These two characteristics are key to what Hartlepool Borough Council wants
to see explicitly reflected in the model of delivery proposed by the Provider.
3.2
Outcome based provision should be designed to ensure that children and
young people receive a personalised service. Outcome based support puts the
individual at the centre of the service and focuses delivery on working towards
specific outcomes defined with the child or young person.
3.3
Hartlepool Borough Council views the needs of the child in the wider context of
their family unit. Hartlepool wishes to work in partnership with providers to deliver
high quality support to children, young people their families or carers.
By signing up to a “partnership approach”, Hartlepool and all providers are making a
commitment to:
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Share key objectives.
Collaborate for mutual benefit.
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Communicate with each other clearly and regularly.
Be open and honest with each other.
Listen to, and understand, each other’s point of view.
Share relevant information, expertise and plans.
Avoid duplication.
Monitor the performance of both/all parties.
Seek to avoid conflicts but, where they arise, to resolve them quickly at a local level,
wherever possible.
Seek continuous improvement by working together to get the most out of the
resources available and by finding better, more efficient ways of doing things.
Share the potential risks involved in service developments.
Promote the partnership approach at all levels in the organisations (eg, through joint
induction or training initiatives).
Have a contract which is flexible enough to reflect changing needs, priorities and
lessons learned and which encourages participation.
3.4
The Service will work in partnership with children, young people and their
parents / carers, together with partner organisations to provide access to services in
the most appropriate location to ensure a quality service which is equitable,
appropriate and accessible.
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 All young people and their family brought to the attention of the service
will have had an assessment of their need using the Common
Assessment Process.
 There will be a focus on “Think Family” as part of this project and an
expectation that the needs of the whole family are considered in both
the assessment and the resultant activity plan.
 All young people who receive a service will have a Specific Measurable
Achievable Realistic Target (SMART) activity plan that will have a range
of personal and organisational goals set out as part of the intervention.
 All young people will have an agreed exit and reintegration strategy
before leaving the service.
 All young people and their families will experience a service that is
integrated and effectively linked to ensure their family needs are met by
the Locality Team.
4.
General Core Principles and Deliverables
4.1
This set of principles should apply to all contact with children and young
people.
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To enable young people to attend school regularly and meet the minimum
standard of 90% attendance.
To ensure that young people behave appropriately in school, family and
community settings.
To ensure that young people are given skills to make informed choice
regarding sexual behaviour; anti social behaviour; and drug or alcohol use
To support young people reach their potential through engagement with
services that will, interest and motivate them to act as good citizens.
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Opportunities for adults to be trained and supported to become mentors
regardless of age, gender, religion, sexual orientation or background.
4.2
The service provider will develop a mentoring project for children and young
people that will support the development of emotional resilience and emotional
literacy, build self esteem, support peer relationships and build confidence. In
addition the service must be fun, challenging and lead to raised aspirations. The
project will also have an emphasis on family mentoring. Hartlepool is interested in
working with organisations that have an interest and knowledge of developing this
work as part of this tender.
5.
Eligibility Criteria
5.1
The Mentoring Service will provide support to meet the needs of identified
young people to allow them to progress in school, thrive at home and be accepted in
their community.
5.2
The Service will respond to referrals of young people who are showing early
signs of requiring additional support to ensure that they can maintain positive
relationships at home in school and in their community.
5.3
The Service will receive referrals from the locality team based on a common
assessment of need.
5.4
The Service will be available to all young people resident in Hartlepool who
have been referred by the locality team.
5.5
The service will link in with partners including statutory services to ensure a
network of availability is evident across the town and young people can access
appropriate resources for their need.
6.
Community based services
6.1
The successful Provider should have access to appropriate facilities within
Hartlepool to provide the service prior to the commencement of the contract.
7.
Team identity and Location of Base
7.1
The Service will need to be available to families and young people and have
the ability to work with them when they are at their most vulnerable and consequently
will need to be provided within a flexible framework that ensures availability on
evenings and at weekends.
8.
Service Leadership
8.1
The Provider will need to provide a qualified and experienced Service Lead
who can demonstrate experience in the field of mentoring provision. There will be an
expectation that this person will provide leadership to the service and a link into the
locality teams as well as strategic support and advice to the Locality Managers. The
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service provider will be responsible for all administrative aspects of the service
including reporting through national, regional and local systems.
9.
Children and Young People
9.1
The Service Provider will provide a mentoring service that supports children
young people and families across Tiers 2 preventative, and Tier 3 targeted. The
interventions will be designed by the service provider to meet the assessed needs of
the young person where these cannot be met through group activities. The Provider
will be required to design individual interventions for young people aimed at achieving
the targets set out in the assessment. In particular mentoring will be beneficial to
provide good role models, alternatives to absent family support, links into community
resources and supported activities.
9.2
The Service will liaise closely with partner organisations and the family / carers
of the young person to ensure their involvement in any mentoring plan.
9.3
The Service will use the Common Assessment and other relevant
documentation to share information about young people and their families with
consent. The Local Authority is currently investing in an electronic ecaf assessment
process and the Service Provider will be expected to engage with this system.
Training and support will be provided to the service.
9.4
The Service will take the role of Lead Practitioner in cases that are appropriate
after discussion with the Manager in the locality.
9.5
Where a child / young persons has a need that requires a more intensive
package of support this will include an enhanced payment managed by the Lead
Locality Officer.
9.6
Each mentoring plan will include a clear discharge plan and on no account will
a young person leave the service without a clear and realistic pathway in place. As
this service is linked to the preventions agenda the expectation is that the core aim
will be a return to universal services.
9.7
The Service Provider will be part of an integrated response and will be
involved in regular meetings with locality teams to ensure that services continually
develop client led processes.
10.
Family Mentoring
10.1 The research carried out for the Early Intervention Strategy identified that
there are large numbers of children living in families that have no extended family
support and are isolated within their community. In particular the strategy identified
five wards that required specific support where families that fit this profile live. These
families make up a large percentage of those children going into tier 4 specialist
services. The local authority would like the provider to develop a service that provides
these links through whole family mentoring. This would be a new approach for
Hartlepool and it is envisaged that it will link with other integrated provision to provide
a menu of services to families. The service provider will recruit and train mentors who
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are capable of providing longer term support to parents identified as requiring a
preventative service. This approach will focus on and enhance the role of family
support in communities. As part of the same volunteer based approach Hartlepool
would be interested in a service that included mentoring support for grandparents
who have become main carers for their grandchildren. This rising group of carers tend
to be fiercely independent and intent on providing for their own but our experience is
that without regular low level support situations can escalate putting great stress on
all family members. This project is not intended for more complex families that would
remain with our specialist Resource Service. Key links will be developed with the two
prevention locality teams that will provide both referrals and support to the service.
This link will be particularly important in managing referrals and providing a locality
focus dependent on need. In particular this service will operate in the 5 wards
identified as “hot spots” in the Early Intervention Strategy.
11.
Volunteers
11.1 Ideally the mentoring programme will focus on the development of individual
volunteers as mentors as this has major benefits to all concerned. Hartlepool has a
long history of volunteer involvement in services as a consequence of a very active
voluntary sector. As part of an integrated service the successful organisation will be
supported by partners to identify prospective mentors. There is an expectation that
the successful organisation will be able to evidence their success with developing
volunteers including recruitment training and ongoing support. Hartlepool is
particularly keen to involve former service users as volunteers as part of their own
pathway to a better life and this should form a key element of any tender document.
12.
Service user and carer involvement
12.1 Hartlepool has made a strategic and political decision to fully embrace a
“Think Family” approach to services. The Service Provider will be expected to take a
whole family view of each intervention and ensure that the needs of the whole family
are considered at the assessment and planning stage.
12.2 Each young person will be fully involved in the development of their
intervention and will be offered a copy of their mentoring plan by the provider.
12.3 The Service Provider will ensure that interventions are accessible and
appropriate to the level of need identified in the assessment and take into account
the five Every Child Matters Outcomes. Those cases that are more complex will
benefit from the multi agency approach being developed through locality services.
12.4 The Service Provider will work closely with partners including the young
person and family to ensure engagement in the service.
12.5 The Service Provider will be responsible for notifying the referrer, if the young
person does not engage with the service outlining engagement strategies employed.
12.6 At the end of the Young Person’s intervention the Provider will ensure that an
exit process that includes the Young Person’s evaluation of the service is completed
and that any learning from the evaluation is noted, acted upon and evidenced. This
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evaluation should be made available to the Locality Manager on request and included
in the quarterly reporting process.
13.
Service Standards
13.1 The following standards are the criteria against which the quality of the service
will be measured. These are additional to those outcomes identified in section 7.
13.2 The Provider will develop an efficient system for responding to referrals which
will involve prompt contact with the young person and others involved.
13.3 The Provider will allow the young person referred opportunity to engage with
the Service with his / her family / friends or carer, as many times as required within an
agreed period of time, and be given the opportunity to speak to staff and other people
using the Service.
13.4 The expectation is that this Service will work with the young people to make
changes in their behaviour. In addition, young people who are identified as requiring
additional multi-agency and / or specialist support will be referred on through agreed
pathways.
14.
Integrated
14.1 The Service will be linked into multi disciplinary teams consisting of agencies
from the public, private and voluntary sector which will be co-ordinated as a whole
service.
15.
Equitable
15.1 Discrimination should not exist towards specialist groups to the detriment of
others. The resources and expertise of the Service should be employed in an
equitable way consistent with the health needs profile for Hartlepool.
16.
Comprehensive
16.1 Services will provide a full range of evidence based therapeutic and supportive
options to clients that concentrate on supporting the key elements of the programme
Emotional Resilience, Emotional Literacy, Self Esteem, Confidence and Peer
relationships, Achievement, Challenge and Aspiration, Diversionary, Restorative and
Fun, Targeted Interventions at street level.
17.
Efficient
17.1 Services will need to demonstrate efficient use of the resources committed to
them and be able to measure the health and well-being outcomes of their users.
18.
Accountable
18.1 Services will need to demonstrate lines of accountability and the intended
process of clinical and managerial decisions.
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19.
Quality
19.1 Services will be monitored and evaluated against the agreed series of
indicators to ensure that they offer clients both quality and choice.
20.
Participative
20.1 Services will respect the fundamental rights and responsibilities of the client,
and provide an active opportunity for them to share, and influence relevant services
by making informed choices about the services they receive.
21.
Staff
21.1 Services must be provided by appropriately qualified and trained staff in line
with the guidance available for any activities being offered eg outdoor activities.
22.
Communication Strategy
22.1 This project is grant funded until 30th September 2013 and is available to
support service delivery through multi disciplinary locality teams. There is no
guarantee that funding will be renewed beyond September 2013. There is an option
to extend the contract period for up to 1 * 18 months period. Any extension will be
based on the availability of future funding and the satisfactory performance of the
Provider.
22.2 Hartlepool Borough Council operates a policy of complaints or disputes being
resolved at the earliest opportunity and at the point closest to service delivery. The
service provider will adhere to this policy.
22.3 All Young People must be given information about the complaints/
representations procedure and how to use it.
22.4 The existence of a Providers’ procedure does not remove the individual’s right
of access to the Council’s own complaints and representations procedure. The
Provider must ensure that any leaflets or documents relating to the Providers
complaints procedure also make the reference to that right.
22.5 The Provider will work in partnership with Hartlepool Borough Council to
establish a project monitoring group with representatives from Hartlepool Borough
Council and the Provider.
22.6 As the needs and wishes of the Young People are of prime importance
Hartlepool Borough Council shall, wherever possible, involve them and/or their
representatives in the monitoring process.
22.7 Evaluation of compliance with the general standards outlined in the Agreement
and Specification, which is the responsibility of Hartlepool Borough Council.
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22.8 Establishing ongoing assessment to ensure that the needs of service users
are being met.
22.9 Hartlepool Borough Council will convene monitoring meetings every 3 months,
which will consider contract compliance, quality assurance and activity levels. An
annual meeting will be held to evaluate the performance of the service.
22.10 The Service Provider is required to supply Hartlepool Borough Council
quantitative and qualitative monitoring data and information in an agreed format. The
provider should have the facilities to provide information electronically.
22.11 It is important that good working relationships are established between the
service provider and those responsible for monitoring. This shall require good
communications, maintenance of effective records, and production of regular reports
and early notification of identified problems.
22.12 The Service Provider must agree policies and procedures with Hartlepool
Borough Council. These policies and procedures will be agreed at the
commencement of the Service and will be subject to ongoing development and
review throughout the monitoring processes.
22.13 In the unlikely event of a breakdown in communications, the contractual clause
pertaining to dispute resolution will be evoked
23.
Monitoring and evaluation including specific outcomes
23.1 The Service Provider will provide quarterly reports on service outcomes. This
report will give an operational perspective of the service being provided and will
include, but not be limited to an update on set targets, an indication of trends and an
assessment of ongoing need. In addition, the report will identify service challenges
and successes including those areas that require the commissioner to intervene.
Each report should include:
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Number of referrals and referral sources.
Number of clients into the mentoring service
Number of new clients and those re-engaging with the service after discharge.
Numbers on support mentoring plans.
Number on waiting lists and waiting times.
Analysis of numbers within different tiers of service.
Consultation and promotion activity.
Number participating and completing Programmes
Number of families supported.
Number of links with partner agencies.
Any other area that is agreed as the service develops.
Number of volunteers trained
Number of volunteers that go on to further training or work
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Outcome
Young people who
require the service
are identified and
are supported in
developing
strategies to
manage their lives
Measurement
Indicator
Number of referrals and referral sources. The % of young people accessing
the mentoring service that are
Number of referrals on CAF
identified through the CAF
process.
Young People and
their families
demonstrate that
the service is
accessible to them
by requesting
support.
Number of clients into mentoring with
analysis of the six strands of diversity
age, gender, race, disability,
religion/faith, sexual orientation and area
of residence.
% of Service users in each of the
six diversity strands
Number on waiting lists and waiting
times.
% of families report that access
was easy and effective.
% of families that report the
service is well advertised.
Consultation and promotion activity.
Reduce the number
of Young people
who will need to
engage with
specialist service.
Families with
children assessed
as requiring
preventative
support are fully
engaged in their
child’s development
and have access to
the full range of
services available
through locality
teams.
All young people
that engage with
the service will
have a clear
mentoring support
plan including a
discharge pathway.
Number of individuals entering
mentoring and those needing to engage
with the specialist services after
discharge.
% of young people who are
referred to specialist services.
Number of families supported.
% of families that access other
services as a result of an
assessment of need made by the
activity service.
Families training, group work or family
therapy.
Number participating and completing
the mentoring activity plan successfully
Progress made when the young person
is reviewed against their mentoring
support plan and their agreed
milestones.
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% of young people who have an
agreed mentoring support plan.
% of service users who have an
agreed discharge plan including a
pathway to appropriate services.