Passenger Transport (Taxis) and Travel Care Framework for Vulnerable Children, Young People and Adults

The Authorities are looking to retender this service and establish a new framework which continues to fulfil the statutory requirements to be safe and appropriate, whilst deriving value for money and maintaining current high-quality standards. The service will predominately be used by: 1)Pupils of Westminster City Council (WCC) and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) with Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities needing transport to and from school/college. 2) Vulnerable Adult Residents of WCC and RBKC needing travel to and from Day Services and other establishments as part of their social care provision. 3) Looked After Children (LAC) and Young People and Children in Need (CIN). These children and young people may have complex needs or a significant disability and/or additional needs that impact upon their daily lives. The requirement is for a number of providers to deliver transport services using a range of vehicles with up to 8 passenger seats including: cars, black cabs, people-carriers and wheelchair accessible vehicles. Passenger Assistants will be required on some routes to provide support to service users who have additional needs. It is most likely that the service requirements will be reprocured through a multi-provider framework which will be split across two Lots:

• Lot 1: Scheduled Journeys where consistency of driver, vehicle and where required, passenger assistance, is absolutely critical to the successful delivery of the service
• Lot 2: Ad-hoc journeys for occasions when either Authority needs quick and efficient taxi provision to transport a range of service users sometimes at extremely short notice. In October 2021 the council published a Contracts Finder – Early Engagement Notice which can be accessed via External ID: 04348b00-afb3-40e9-afb2-73c6b5449d80 https://www.capitalesourcing.com/esop/toolkit/notice/showNationalData.do?noticeId=1002246#fh Information and documents from the previous Market Engagement Questionnaire and event which took place in October 2021 can be found in the attachments section of ittWCC15077 within our e-tending portal. In addition, all information from the previous Market Engagement exercise will be shared in the upcoming tender.