The City of Cardiff Council currently receives a Welsh Government grant for the Families First programme to provide early intervention and prevention services for families.

Welsh Government published the final guidance for the new Families First programme in April 2017. This formed the direction of travel for the Families First programme. This confirmed that the 4 main elements of provision would be:

— Continuation of Team Around the Family (TAF) model of working,

— Continuation of the Disability Focus, which provides support to families with needs related to their child's disabilities (this element continues to be ring-fenced),

— A clearer focus on support for parenting,

— A clearer focus on support for young people.

The Council is looking to establish a range of services that aligns with these four main elements and has considered opportunities to link services into those already in existence and to develop clearer systems for early help through service redesign.

Lot 1 — Early Years Volunteer Support Service. To complement the in house delivery of parenting services, the Council wishes to procure a volunteer based family support service with an estimated contract value of 140 000 GDP per annum. The Early Years Volunteer Support Service will offer home based support, delivered by volunteers to families with very young children.

Lot 2 — Healthy Relationships Service. The Council wishes to procure a contract for additional specialised support for healthy relationships and sexual health, inclusive of preventative Child Sexual Exploitation work. This service will build upon successful work carried out within the first phase of Families First, working with professionals in up-skilling them to deal with sexual health related issues as well as offering support to young people on both a 1-1 and group work basis. The estimated contract value is 95 000 GBP per annum.

Lot 3 — Youth Information Service. In line with recommendations from youth engagement, communication has been identified as a key area for young people in relation to Families First. Sustaining a web based information service, and building a social media presence is intended to improve the quality and availability of information for young people linked to Families First. The estimated value of this contract is 40 000 GBP per annum.

Lot 4 — Family Wellbeing Service. Low level mental health needs, including of parents and carers, have been identified through stakeholder engagement as a gap in existing service provision. The Family Wellbeing Service will build upon services offered under the first phase of Families First, offering evidence based interventions for those with low level mental and emotional health related issues. The estimated value of this contract is 470 000 GBP per annum.