Bristol Community Support Services

Bristol Community Support Services

We're changing the way that we provide Community Support Services (CSS) to adults with social care needs in the community or at home.

Community Support Services (CSS):

• help you be as independent as possible
• improve wellbeing
• aim to reduce the need for more care later

CSS Commissioning Strategy

In 2015 we created a draft strategy to show how CSS will be different in the future. We consulted with service users, carers, providers and stakeholders.

We looked at all the feedback we got and updated our strategy based on it.

To see what we'll do in the future and how your views have influenced our plans, you can look at:

CSS Tender

In order to implement our plans we have written a new service specification and designed a new commissioning model.

The CSS tender process started on 8 September 2017 via ProContract. To find out more information about the tender and how to submit a bid, log onto ProContract and search for Opportunity ID DN165667.

Future tender rounds close on the following dates:

Round closure date

  • 7 November 2019
  • 7 May 2020
  • 5 November 2020

Outcome and contract set up

The dates are provisional and are subject to change and review by the authority, where this is the case we'll aim to give notice via ProContract before the round closes.

Timescales following submission

The round closes on the evaluation deadline date given.

If no date is given you will receive a notification from ProContract once this is set. You will need to sign up to the opportunity on ProContract for this to happen.

Evaluation and moderation of submissions from this round will take place, expected turnaround is 3 to 6 weeks.

Providers will be notified of the outcome of the submission, expected to be in the week following the moderation.

Providers will be set up on our systems and start receiving details of placement opportunities expected to be complete a week following notification of your tender submission being successful.

You will need to provide additional information for set up at this stage.

The process from the evaluation deadline to successful providers being live on the Framework will be around 6 weeks

We have created a step by step guide for providers (pdf, 990KB) (opens new window) . This guide provides instructions on how to submit a tender.

Providers must successfully pass the tender process in order to provide services in the future.

The tender process has been discussed with providers. The notes from these meetings can be found under the downloadable files section of this webpage.

Community support market engagement events

We hold regular meetings with providers.

At these meetings we discuss how we can put the plans from the strategy into practice.

Future meetings

There are no meetings booked at present.

Documents from previous market development events

Tuesday 20 and 27 September event: CSS Mid-Tender event slides (pdf, 1.1MB) (opens new window)

Tuesday 16 August 2016 2016 event: CSS Pre-Tender event slides (pdf, 1.7MB) (opens new window)

Tuesday 17 May 2016 event: CSS Market development day slides (pdf, 546KB) (opens new window)

Wednesday 27 April 2016 event: CSS Market development drop-in event slides (pdf, 1.4MB) (opens new window)

Supported living Market Position Statement        

In August we published a market position statement for supported living services.

A market position statement is designed to provide intelligence, information and analysis about the supply and demand of services.

Full Market position statement (pdf, 907KB) (opens new window)

We held an event for supported living providers to discuss the market position statement and other matters related to supported living.

The feedback from this meeting has been sent to the wider commissioning team, Brokerage and Care management, and will influence future work-packages and stimulate new conversations.

Supported living Market Position Statment lauch evaluation documents

Evaluation overview including feedback from providers (pdf, 368KB) (opens new window)

Market position statement slides  (pdf, 698KB) (opens new window)

Advice for EA and service charges (pdf, 201KB) (opens new window)

Supported Living HB Presentation August 2016 (pdf, 77KB) (opens new window)

Downloadable files