Essex County Council is being contacted regularly by Children’s Homes providers looking to set up new homes in Essex, and expressing a desire to better understand local need. In order to respond fairly and transparently to these requests the Council has:

• Published an online Market Position Statement for a suite of children’s services including but not limited to, residential homes.
• Undertaken a series of market collaboration events with a focus on securing feedback on the prospect of delivering emergency provision in Essex based children’s homes.
• Published the series of market collaboration events on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) – Find a Tender which is a national resource which advertises all public sector procurements.  Please note that details of any future events will also be published on CDP. Providers can review this platform to secure insight into potential opportunities.

Commissioning, Procurement and Operations Teams have also set up a weekly drop in sessions  for providers to meet with them. The sessions are for:

• Providers to be able to introduce themselves, share their ambitions and plans
• ECC’s to share information about sufficiency and residential strategies and local initiatives

The drop ins are informal, and are not designed to offer formal advice on planning applications and/or provide any guarantee of volume of work. However, colleagues may provide signposting guidance in relation to potential opportunities which provider may wish to explore. 

The drop in sessions run weekly on Fridays between 10 and 11am. If you would like to book a slot please email the Residential Strategy Team who will forward you an invite.