Support Planning Service (Pilot)

The London Borough of Lewisham invites expressions of interest from suitably experienced providers, with extensive knowledge of the borough who wish to provide a proposal for a pilot to deliver Support Planning as part of  Lewisham’s Self Directed Support (SDS) trial for citizens.

Expressions of interest for this work are sought in two areas:

• To provide support planning for adults aged 65 plus with assessed social care needs
• To provide support planning for adults aged between 18 and 65 with assessed social care needs.

The service will include assisting people with information, advice and expertise to enable them to work out what their choices will be, and the support required to access the services of their choice. This will include drawing up a support plan as a discrete piece of work, and it can also involve the process by which a plan is put into effect. A range of skills and expertise is required to deliver this service; for this reason the authority is encouraging collaborative bidding from local voluntary sector providers currently delivering specialist services to the targeted groups.

Pilot Period

The pilot period will be 1 November  2010 to 31 March 2011 and providers must demonstrate that they can meet this challenging timeline. The Council is in the process of developing a Resource Allocation System (RAS) and Support Planning must run in tandem with this and other developments within self-directed support .

The learning from the pilot will be evaluated and the results used to inform our decisions on the long-term provision of Support Planning in the borough.

The closing date for this invitation to quote is 5 pm, 24 September 2010. To request further information  please contact the following, preferably by email.

Debbie Hole
Social Care Transformation Team
5th Floor Town Hall
Catford
London
SE6 4RU

Email: Debbie.Hole@lewisham.gov.uk