Manchester Worklessness Programme

Manchester City Council (MCC) wishes to commission a service which can meet the following key objectives:

- Reduce the barriers to employment for Manchester residents

- Engage and support people who are not in employment to participate in the labour market

- Support people in work, at risk of falling out of work due to health conditions or disabilities, to remain in employment

- Engage employers to provide meaningful work opportunities

- Deliver a coherent, joined-up local work, health and skills offer

The Manchester Worklessness Programme will be based on the following principles:

- Delivering Making Manchester Fairer

- Targeting support in the right places/neighbourhoods and aligning to Live Well

- Intervening early to prevent unemployment and support those furthest away to move closer to work

- Addressing known inequality of access to good employment for racially minoritised groups

- Strengthening the city's approach to the social model for disability

- Delivering Manchester City of Learning

- Working closely with partnerships to develop an integrated local offer between the provider and grass roots organisations

The Worklessness Programme will deliver a Supported Employment and a wider early medium-intervention Employment Support Service, providing participants with holistic support for their barriers to employment, including health-related concerns.

Delivery will follow a keyworker model, ensuring culturally competent, multidisciplinary support tailored to individual needs. Where required, the provider will work with external partners to deliver specialist interventions, including support for mental health, wellbeing, and English language development.

The service will also act as a triage and referral hub, linking participants to the wider local work and health system. Where needs fall beyond the programme's scope, the keyworker will signpost or refer participants to appropriate local services and follow up to ensure support is received.

Further information is provided in the Specification.

Manchester City Council invites Applications for the provision of the Services, from organisations with relevant experience and ability to demonstrate sufficient capacity for providing the Services.

The Contract will be for an initial term of 26 months. The Council may extend for a further period of time of 12 months.

It is intended for the contract to commence 01 February 2027.

The Council currently has approved funding of approximately £1 million in respect of the initial requirements under this procurement. Therefore, the guaranteed minimum value of the contract is £1 million.

The Council may, subject to governance approvals and the availability of funding, seek to procure additional services of a similar nature during the contract term; it is planned for matched third-party funding from the Greater Manchester Integrated Settlement of c£3m to be potentially added to this tender by October 2026. Should such approvals be obtained for this additional funding, the total value of the contract may increase to an estimated maximum value of approximately £4 million.

Bidders should note that the Council gives no guarantee that any expenditure above the currently approved funding level will be commissioned. Any additional requirements will be subject to separate internal approvals and budget availability. Tenderers should therefore not rely on the Council exercising any option to increase expenditure beyond the currently approved requirement.

The Council will assess bidders on their ability to perform the contract as advertised, including the potential requirement to deliver services with an estimated maximum contract value of approximately £4 million.

It is envisaged that the contract will be awarded to one (1) lead provider or consortium.