JIREH CARE AND RECRUITMENT SERVICES LTD London Borough of Waltham Forest — Short Breaks Services for Children with Disabilities

The quality responses for both lots were built around Jireh Care and Recruitment Services’ direct experience of working with children and young people with disabilities. The company’s background in both care delivery and healthcare recruitment gives it a particular perspective on workforce that is relevant to a short breaks context, where the quality of the individual worker and the consistency of the relationship between that worker and the child can make or break a placement.

Questions 1, 2, and 3 each scored Good on both lots, meeting the required standard in all material respects with no negative indicators or inconsistencies identified by evaluators. That is a stronger quality showing across those three questions than most providers in the field achieved, and it reflects the specificity and depth with which the responses were written.

The person-centred planning response addressed what it means to put a child with a disability at the centre of their own short break experience, drawing on Jireh’s understanding of communication, preferences, sensory needs, and the importance of consistency in relationships between the child and those supporting them. Person-centred planning for children is different from its application in adult services, and the response reflected that distinction clearly.

The question about attracting children and young people to the service was approached from the perspective of both the child and their family, because in practice both need to feel confident about a short break for it to work. The response covered how Jireh makes itself accessible to families from across Waltham Forest’s diverse communities, how it communicates with young people in ways that work for them, and what specifically distinguishes its offer. Our equality, diversity and inclusion tender writing approach shaped how we framed accessibility and engagement in this section.

The third question on improving lives went beyond describing activities and addressed impact: what changes for a child when they have access to consistent, well-delivered short breaks, and what it means for a family to have reliable, trusted provision they can count on. These are the outcomes Waltham Forest is commissioning for, and the response made that connection explicit.

Question 4, on how the proposal aligned with the service specification’s core objectives, scored Acceptable on both lots. This means the response covered the required ground but had some minor omissions or did not map as precisely onto the specification’s language and structure as it could have. That is the clearest single area for development in the quality section, and the fix is relatively straightforward: a more systematic walkthrough of the core objectives in section 4 of the specification, with explicit cross-referencing to how each one is addressed in the delivery model.

The social value score of 0.65% across both lots reflects a submission that was largely incomplete in that area. Social value carried 10% of the total marks, and the gap between what was submitted and what a full social value response would have contributed is significant, particularly on Lot 1 where the overall score of 68.63% sits close to the scores of a number of other providers in the field. Strengthening the social value submission is the highest-impact single change available for any future tender of this type. Our social value tender writing page covers how to build a social value submission that scores well both quantitatively and qualitatively.