Tender: Open-Access Adult Social Welfare Advice Service – Portsmouth City Council

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Portsmouth City Council is seeking a supplier to deliver an open-access social welfare advice service for adults living or working in Portsmouth, including Portsmouth City Council (Portsmouth Homes) tenants accommodated outside the city. The service must provide free, confidential and impartial specialist and generalist advice on housing, welfare benefits, debt (with Financial Conduct Authority registration for specialist debt counselling and approved intermediaries for Debt Relief Orders), income maximisation, employment rights, family and consumer issues and general queries, delivered in-person from central Portsmouth location(s), by telephone, email and other channels with home visits where appropriate. This is a re-procurement (TUPE applies); in 2024/25 the service supported 14,288 people (13,666 receiving direct support), equating to around 1,150 people per month and 265 per week, with highest demand in welfare benefits, debt, housing, consumer and family/employment rights. The core contract is funded at £295,000 per annum (£1,475,000 over a maximum five-year term) and is supplemented by £241,666 of Crisis and Resilience Fund support for outreach/community provision for the initial three-year period (1 April 2026–31 March 2029). Key procurement dates include publication and document availability on 27 May 2026, tender return deadline 3 July 2026, contract award 1 September 2026 and contract start 1 December 2026.