Invitation to tender (ITT)

ITT closes 22nd June 2022

ITT shortlisting 29th June 2022

If you have any questions, please reach out to louisecannon@unltd.org.uk

About UnLtd

UnLtd is a charity that provides support to social entrepreneurs, people who are using business for social good. We find, fund and support people who are tackling pressing social issues to improve the lives of those in their community. Our expert team of Social Entrepreneur Support Managers and Portfolio Managers provide social entrepreneurs with market-leading support to help them and their venture to start up, shore up and scale their venture. Every year, we support around 400 social ventures across the UK to access grants and investment. We offer a tailored package of support that aims to be transformational social entrepreneurs and helps:

• To enable them to act for change, accelerating the pace towards a fairer and healthier world
• To grow their potential to build and lead impactful, equitable and resilient organisations
• To find and amplify their voice as a social leader
• To place their wellbeing and lived experiences at the heart of our support

Our teams bring more than strong technical knowledge; they also have a personal approach and seek to break down barriers social entrepreneurs face when starting and growing a venture. We want our support to social entrepreneurs to be equitable and to help them achieve impact, whilst creating space for them to be their authentic selves.

Background to this tender

Combined with our ambitions to deliver market leading support, we are committed to inclusion and aim to find, fund and support the most marginalised social entrepreneurs, including those with lived experience of the social challenge that they are trying to solve. We believe we cannot actively seek out those who have been harmed by systems of oppression without providing trauma-informed support. When leading their ventures, those social entrepreneurs that choose to act for change based on their lived experience are having to both:

• During the course of their business social entrepreneurs are having to revisit the injustices that they experience(d) daily in pursuit of impact
• Hold the lived experience and trauma of the communities they support, which continue to experience the same injustices For this reason, it is important that our Support and Portfolio Managers can be cognisant of the symptoms of trauma and feel comfortable that they are equipped with the appropriate knowledge and skills if, or when these arise. Our hope is that this will help create the conditions for authentic relationships and trust to be built.

Our Aims

As a minimum, we would like any training and support to:

• Help the team recognise the symptoms of trauma
• Equip the team with skills to support social entrepreneurs who are experiencing the symptoms of trauma
• Equip the team with the tools to self-regulate when they hear about social entrepreneur’s experience
• Help the team avoid retraumatising social entrepreneurs
• Help the team to clearly understand the remit of their role versus when they need to refer to specialist organisations
  • Helping the team to set appropriate boundaries in relation to their role

While our support team are trained in coaching methodologies, our aim is not for them to start providing therapeutic support to social entrepreneurs. Instead, we would like them to be equipped to handle any challenging situations they may encounter when supporting a social entrepreneur who either has, or whose beneficiaries have, experienced trauma, avoiding further harm.

These are our key objectives; however, we would also be interested in hearing about any services you provide which may be able to guide UnLtd on how to best support staff, e.g. through the use of one- to-one or team supervision, peer support, ongoing learning and so on.

What type of support are we seeking?

The successful respondent to this tender will use evidence-based psychological models and theories to help UnLtd provide a trauma-informed approach and understand opportunities to improve processes and procedures.

As a guideline, we are seeking the below support. Please note that if you offer a different approach, but believe you can help us achieve the aims mentioned above, we would welcome hearing from you.

• Your support will provide an introduction to being trauma-informed and aware for all social entrepreneur-facing team members (up to 40 people)
• You will offer a full and robust training package to support staff in taking a trauma-informed approach (up to 30 people) as a follow up to the introduction
• Training will provide the team with a psychological “tool kit” to help them self-regulate, support social entrepreneurs and work more effectively

Though not an essential part of the provision, we would welcome the opportunity for additional training to support line managers to hold spaces for reflective practice with their team members (up to 10 people).

What should the content include?

To introduce trauma-informed practice it is anticipated that all delivery staff will be required to undergo training that covers the following areas:

• The symptoms of trauma, including flight, fight, freeze and fawn
  • This should include examples, so the team can spot the signs of the different states
  • How to support an individual who is triggered and/ or experiencing the symptoms of trauma
• The neuroscience of what happens in the brain when someone experiences trauma or its effects
  • This includes understanding why we may sometimes react in irrational or unhelpful ways
• The ‘window of tolerance,’ including when someone is dysregulated and what this can look like
• How to self-regulate when providing support to those who have experienced trauma
• Understanding vicarious trauma

We would also welcome any content that incorporates an awareness of marginalised groups.

Responding to this tender

To respond to this tender, please address the following areas in a maximum 3 page’ document to louisecannon@unltd.org.uk:

1. A summary of your organisation and track record in delivering support around trauma- informed practice
2. The legal structure of the organisation and if it is a social business, a brief statement on the added social value of contracting with your organisation
3. A statement relating to the inclusiveness of your organisation (specifically the demographic make-up of your board and/ or leadership team, where applicable) and your wider work to support inclusive practices
4. An overview of your approach to delivering this work and the specific areas that your trauma-informed practice training would cover
5. An indication of the practical tools and resources you are able to provide
6. A brief introduction to the team that would deliver the training and their credentials
7. A breakdown of the costs to deliver the work and over what period of time

All tenders will be scored and those that score highest will be invited to a meeting to discuss the proposal. Weighted scoring will focus on the depth and quality of the provision; the potential to unlock additional social value through the contract; value for money and inclusion.

Applications for this tender close on the 22nd June 2022 and you can expect to receive the outcome of our shortlisting on the 29th June 2022.