The provision of a mental health Individual Placement Support employment service within the County of Staffordshire, which delivers hope and optimism in its support to Eligible adults.

The Provider shall work in partnership with local agencies and groups in the Contract Area to expand opportunities for Service Users, encouraging Service Users to achieve their full potential and supporting individual Service Users to gain sustainable employment.

The Provider shall ensure that the provision of the Service is underpinned by the philosophies of recovery, social inclusion, personal responsibility and people directing their own care.

The Provider shall deliver the Service in accordance with the key principles of the evidence based Individual Placement and Support (IPS) approach to vocational services.

The objectives of the Service are:

— To enable Service Users to formulate, achieve and sustain their vocational goals, in a supportive and empowering environment;

— Service Users will gain and retain quality, sustainable employment;

— For Service Users to develop their skills and gain new ones in line with their interests, through vocational training and practical work experiences as part of a clear route to paid employment;

— To ensure that service users are assisted to retain their employment (e.g. through being supported to negotiate reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 with their employer);

— To provide, directly or through partner organisations, careers advice and accurate benefits information to enable Service Users to make informed decisions around taking up and keeping in employment;

— To establish vocationally themed Peer Support group(s);

— To challenge the low expectations about, and raise awareness of, the employability of people who have experienced mental health problems;

— To allocate a named Mental Health Employment Adviser for each Mental Health Clinical and Social Care Team;

— To act as one of the key links to employment providers;

— To provide employment advice to Care Co-ordinators, employers and others where necessary;

— To utilise local resources e.g. employment agencies, Jobcentre Plus, Citizen's Advice Bureau;

— To work as an integral part of the Mental Health Clinical and Social Care Teams;

— To give information to Service Users on the range of benefits, e.g. in work benefits, permitted work and to support Service Users to access specialist advice.

Important note — The participation and process for this tender will be via the electronic tendering portal located at www.staffordshire.alito.co.uk Please ensure you also refer to section VI.3 of this notice.

All requests for information to be sent through the electronic tendering portal and messaging facility on the Proactis electronic tendering system. How to register:

1. Instructions at http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/business/procurement/etendering/

2. Follow the link to Proactis E-Tendering (http://www.staffordshire.alito.co.uk). On the main page click suppliers then (new user) register links.

3. Complete the self-registration questions and click the Register button.

4. You will receive a confirmation e-mail with an authentication link (this e-mail may find its way to your trash/junk email account, so please check).

5. Confirm the authentication and then login into Proactis suppliers-side.

6. Search the bulletin board for the tender(s) using key words, search criteria etc.

7. Once found, click on the (blue) contract title to register interest against an active tender.

8. Click the register button and then continue.

9. The tender will now be in the my tenders profile area on the main menu.

10. Find the read me first document and continue with managing the tender.

If you require urgent assistance regarding the initial usage of the eTendering package please contact the Contracting Authority point-of-contact in Section I.1 of this notice. On failure to reach this contact, please immediately e-mail the nature of the difficulty to commissioning.team@staffordshire.gov.uk