PS25205 - Acas27410 - Evaluation of Acas Individual Conciliation Service

***** THIS IS AN AWARD NOTICE, NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION *****

This procurement is being concluded following a mini competition under the CCS RM6126 Research & Insights DPS

Brief Description of Requirement - Acas has a statutory duty to promote resolution of Employment Tribunal (ET) claims to avoid full tribunal hearings. Acas calls this service Individual Conciliation (IC) to distinguish it from our service for collective disputes. In April 2014 the Early Conciliation (EC) launched under a new requirement to Section 18 of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. This requires prospective claimants "to contact Acas before instituting proceedings" in response to which Acas must "endeavour to promote a settlement between the persons who would be parties to the proceeding". In most cases, before lodging a claim with the Tribunal, the claimant must first 'notify' Acas, who will try to help both parties resolve the dispute via EC. If EC fails to achieve a resolution and the claimant proceeds to lodge a claim with the Employment Tribunal, post-ET1 conciliation is still offered.