Care&Support Information, Advice, Advocacy&Community Infrastructure Support Service

Medway Council Open early stakeholder engagement event - This is a forthcoming procurement opportunity in the early stages of development which is open to input from industry. Medway Council is inviting service providers to a stakeholder engagement event to engage in further development of the service specification for the Provision of Care &Support Information, Advice, Advocacy & Community Infrastructure Support Service. The Service will provide a range of related and interdependent functions including:

o a ‘one stop shop’ gateway to provide supported signposting to the other functions included in the Service, to statutory health and social care organisations, and to services in the voluntary and community sector (VCS) o the provision of information and advice via a ‘community navigation’ service o the development and, subsequently, the maintenance of a comprehensive and accessible directory of local organisations, providers, social enterprises and community groups o community infrastructure support for local VCS organisations, including social / micro enterprises o support to encourage a more diverse market for people to use their Direct Payments and self funders o the gathering of insight from health and social care users consumers so it can contribute to the development of services (Local Healthwatch) independent advocacy for people with care and support needs The Service is for people who live in Medway or those registered with a Medway GP in need of assistance because of their lack of knowledge or experience of a particular situation concerning their health and wellbeing (some functions will be subject to further qualifying criteria).

This includes older and vulnerable people; people with disabilities; people with mental illness; people with long term health conditions. The Service will be inclusive and will deal with people regardless of ethnicity; faith or religion; sexual identity; or socio-economic status.

Service commencement date is anticipated to be 1 April 2017. Further details will be provided at the Stakeholder Engagement Event to be held on Wednesday 17th August 10:00am to 13:00pm – Venue: Gun Wharf, Chatham, ME4 4TR If you are interested in attending this event, please respond to Emily Wood on resarchandinfo@medway.gov.uk or via telephone on 01634 337087 no later than 5pm on 12th August. Further information will be made available as soon as possible in the coming weeks

In due course, if appropriate, relevant OJEU notices will be published and the tender will commence via the Kent Business portal www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk