Guidance

Call for bids: provide specialist social worker advice for FCDO staff and in-person support for British nationals at Heathrow Airport

Published 6 January 2022

Details

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) aims to provide a consistently high-quality consular service for British nationals overseas. In support of this, the FCDO works in partnership with other organisations to provide assistance to distressed and vulnerable British nationals overseas who wish to return to the UK.

The FCDO provides consular assistance to a number distressed or vulnerable British nationals overseas, with over half returning to the UK through Heathrow Airport each year.

We invite proposals from organisations with relevant expertise to form a partnership with the FCDO’s Consular Directorate to provide:

• specialist in-person support to vulnerable British nationals returning to the UK via Heathrow airport
• specialist social work advice and support to consular staff on complex cases including but not limited to mental health, child welfare, homelessness and destitution, older people and dementia

Examples of appropriate specialist support may include but are not limited to:

• responding promptly to referrals from the FCDO to provide in-person assistance to distressed or vulnerable British nationals arriving at Heathrow. This may include but is not limited to supporting those with complex social care and/or mental health needs, those returning homeless, and unaccompanied minors. British nationals may need to be met at the door of the aircraft. Occasionally British nationals arriving outside of usual working hours may require support

• liaison with other agencies and parties to access support for distressed or vulnerable British nationals where appropriate eg. local authorities or homeless shelters

• having qualified social work advisers provide specialised support and advice to FCDO consular staff on relevant social work issues including child welfare, dementia, repatriation, mental health, etc. This may include providing dedicated qualified social work advisers to work within Consular Directorate

• making qualified social work advisers available for meetings both virtually and in person to discuss ongoing complex cases and make referrals to other FCDO partner organisations or relevant UK government agencies as required

Consular Directorate provides non-judgemental support to British nationals overseas. Our partners must be able to demonstrate how they will provide support to British nationals consistently and without discrimination.

Budgets are subject to final agreement, but the anticipated maximum budget for this work, including advice and support on social work issues, is £240,000 per annum. We welcome bids for a proportion of this funding or up to the maximum amount.

If a higher level of funding or dedicated staffing could achieve an improved service, you should fully explain this and we will consider it. We will not provide funding to cover organisational overhead costs not directly attributable to the support of British nationals’ cases and the objectives of Consular Directorate.

Who can bid

We welcome proposals from organisations able to provide support to British nationals returning to the UK and support to the FCDO on social work issues which will enable distressed and vulnerable British nationals to return to the UK. All organisations bidding should have, or demonstrate the ability to secure, authority to work at Heathrow airport, including airside.

We are looking for organisations that can demonstrate in their bid:

• an understanding of human welfare issues and instruments
• experience of working with British nationals returning to the UK
• experience or understanding of working with local authorities across the UK and other NGOs
• experience or understanding of working with UK government

Criteria for assessing project proposals

We will consider projects against:

• closeness of fit with Consular Directorate’s objectives
• clarity of proposal design, including evidence of appropriate qualifications and experience required to deliver the proposed outputs and activities
• evidence of wider stakeholder support and engagement, such as co-ordination with other relevant national and international partners or networks, including where these can support broader FCDO consular objectives
• evidence of past delivery as an implementer
• consistency and sustainability of activities and support provided
• detailed budget breakdown and value for money
• monitoring and evaluation planning to demonstrate delivery against objectives

Guidelines for submitting a proposal

Submit your proposal using the FCDO proposal form. Submit it in full and in accordance with this guidance. We will not review incomplete proposal forms. If you have any questions or if any aspect of the form is not clear, contact the project officer by email: Consular.GrantAgreementBids@fcdo.gov.uk.

Important points to include in your proposal:

• include both qualitative and quantitative milestones, which should be referenced in reporting
• include annexed evidence of previous experience delivering similar projects
• you must provide details of how the work will be monitored in your proposal. Monitoring methods should be robust, transparent and include scope for beneficiary input. They should be designed to give a meaningful assessment of impact
• the FCDO places a strong emphasis on evaluation. Proposals for delivery valued £100,000 and over may be independently evaluated
• demonstrate a full assessment of project risks. Potential partners should identify any risks which might apply to the project, what steps will be taken to mitigate those risks, and how risks will be reviewed during the delivery cycle. You must have an internal due diligence process in place to monitor these risks. We will not approve proposals without realistic risk assessments, including duty of care to staff
• budget your projects in Pounds Sterling and demonstrate value for money, excluding VAT. Budgets should give a detailed breakdown of cost per activity per month and unit costs for staff where possible. Travel and accommodation costs incurred should be in line with FCDO guidance, which is available on request

Terms of agreement

Agreements will be subject to FCDO standard contract terms:

• payment will be made quarterly in advance
• the financial year runs from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023. The agreement will be for 1 year, but potentially renewable on an annual basis up until 2025. This is subject to satisfactory performance and funding availability throughout the 2022 to 2023 to 2024 to 2025 Spending Review period

Four social work advisors are currently employed and we would look to have their employment continued. We believe TUPE is likely to apply to this transfer, and existing terms and conditions will transfer and be protected, however, bidders will want to seek their own legal advice.

Timing

Email your proposal to Projects and Partnerships Team at Consular.GrantAgreementBids@fcdo.gov.uk by 5pm on 31 January 2022.

Contact

Projects Officer, Projects and Partnerships Team, FCDO. Email: Consular.GrantAgreementBids@fcdo.gov.uk