Children’s Commissioning

The CEPET DPS will be our new DPS. It will focus on the needs of children and young people in Peterborough.

All providers will need to bid to join, even if they are on the Cambridgeshire led CEP DPS as this is a different framework.

We want you to be responsive to the needs of local children and young people.

Our Peterborough-specific CEPET DPS is designed to support children and young people to remain living and learning in their local area - if it is safe and appropriate to do so. We must ensure their voices, and parent/carers feedback from consultations are heard during the development of the CEPET DPS.

The ‘Every Word Matters’ YouTube video, gives a flavour of what children and young people are looking for from those who support them.

We don't have a set a limit of providers. For each Lot, it is important to have a variety of providers to meet the diverse needs of the children and young people we support.

We do not manage Fee Uplifts for the CEP DPS as this is led by Cambridgeshire County Council.

We intend to build into the CEPET DPS a flexible mechanism for block contracts. This would be tendered as required.

This would be particularly relevant for strategic providers i.e. local providers who support many Peterborough children and young people.

We work with CCRAG to share resource and intelligence regarding our quality assurance approach. We are always reviewing the effectiveness of our approach and welcome feedback.

How do we help support children and young people step down from residential into fostering? 

Alongside the Access to Resources Team (ART), we work with social care to review cases. Managing stepping down effectively for children and young people is a focus within the journey of transformation Peterborough’s Children’s Services.

Could we recirculate any placements and referrals that have not been placed on a weekly or fortnightly basis?

Referrals are recirculated in accordance with the individual child’s needs and their timescales.

Does Peterborough have a need for parent and child residential centres?

Peterborough has limited demand for parent and child residential homes at this time and referrals are generally for fostering homes.

Would it be worth tendering if you do not have any care homes in Peterborough?

 Wherever it is safe and appropriate to do so, our priority is to support children to remain living and learning in their local area.

We acknowledge that this is not always safe or suitable, this means that you can tender if you are based outside of Peterborough.

What do we mean by higher needs SEND?

The term higher need or complex need SEND can refer to a multiple diagnosis and therefore managing co-occurring conditions. There can be cases where this refers to escalating need or deteriorating conditions requiring more specialist support to meet the need of the individual.

How do you keep a track of your students?

The Statutory Assessment & Monitoring Service keep track of all children and young people in independent education placements. Referrals are sent out by the Access to Resources Team.

For education referrals, would it be possible to refine distribution lists to help providers manage referral rates for specific groups?

To adhere to Procurement regulations, referrals in many cases must be sent to all the providers that join our CEPET DPS. This process does take into consideration where schools, for example, only support girls/boys or a specific cohort of need.

When Out of School Tuition (OoST) is required, will referrals be sent to you or a select preferred list?

If you wish to join this Lot on the CEPET DPS, and are successful in doing so, you will be part of this preferred list.

Are you open to trialling pilot projects? I.e. providers who don't have a physical building

For out of school tuition and/or alternative provision providers, we are looking for providers that can meet the diverse needs of our children and young people. This will therefore include working with providers who deliver their services online/virtually.

Will we consider an academic-only Alternative Provision (AP)?

We are looking to have a range of OoST/AP providers - all bids are welcome.

Will this replace the agreement I already have with the Behaviour and Inclusion Team?

 We are looking to bring together the current commissioning mechanisms for OoST and Alternative Provision.

If you are currently on the Alternative Provision Directory, please join the CEPET DPS.