Prison Buddy Service - Supplier Engagement

Lancashire County Council (the Council) are reviewing a Lancashire Prison Buddy Scheme in operation across some Lancashire Prisons. This scheme provides prisoner to prisoner peer support overseen through a formal framework and governance. The Lancashire Prison Buddy scheme has been in place on a trial basis for two years across three Lancashire prisons and has resulted in an improvement in the feeling of wellbeing amongst elderly and vulnerable prisoners who have been supported.

The Council are engaging with Suppliers, to gauge the appetite within the market to deliver a contract such as this as well as ascertain if any improvements can be made to the specification prior to formal publication. A competitive procurement is being assumed (subject to market interest and capability), which is currently scheduled to commence in late 2022 to enable suppliers to deliver the service. The contract length will be five years and the service will be across the five prison sites of:

• HMP Wymott • HMP Preston • HMP Garth • HMP Kirkham • HMP Lancaster Farms The contract will be expected to be awarded early in 2023 and service commencement would then be anticipated from 1st April 2023. For the avoidance of doubt the proposals set out within this document may change before an Invitation to Participate in a tender is published. We would welcome a response from your organisation - if you wish to do so please follow the link below and provide your feedback no later than 5pm 26th August 2022. https://forms.office.com/r/5ukGKeW7nY If you have any queries in relation to the above form please contact: commissioningAgeWell@lancashire.gov.uk The Council reserves the right to amend what is set out in this engagement event and any future engagements and documents. Any procurement process that may be conducted will only be in accordance with the procurement documents that are published. Please note that participation (or non-participation) in engagements will confer no advantage or disadvantage should commissioners commence the formal procurement process.