---
title: "DOJ - Advocacy Support Service for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse"
ocid: "ocds-h6vhtk-02a515"
canonical_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02a515"
markdown_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02a515.md"
json_url: "https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02a515.json"
source: "Find A Tender Service"
current_stage: "Award"
buyer: "DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NI"
published: "2021-04-12"
---

# DOJ - Advocacy Support Service for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse

Buyer: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NI  
Current stage: Award  
OCID: ocds-h6vhtk-02a515

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## Summary

The Department of Justice Northern Ireland (DoJ), in collaboration with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), has completed a public procurement process for the "Advocacy Support Service for Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse." This contract, classified under guidance services within the services industry, is based in Northern Ireland. The contract is intended to provide critical advocacy support to victims, ensuring they have access to tailored services to help mitigate risk and promote engagement with the criminal justice system. The active contract was signed on 7 April 2021, with an estimated total value of £9 million. Originally, the procurement method was an open procedure, allowing for broad competition.

This procurement presents substantial opportunities for businesses, particularly those specialising in support services within the domestic and sexual violence sector. Firms equipped to offer coordinated and tailored advocacy, safety planning, and collaborative approaches with law enforcement or community agencies will be well-positioned to compete. Businesses that can demonstrate a robust service delivery model, effective partnership working, and experience in managing such sensitive and critical services will stand to benefit from this contract and further engage in similar future projects aimed at enhancing community welfare and safety.

## Notice

DoJ, in partnership with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), wishes to appoint a service provider to deliver a new Northern Ireland-wide advocacy service to support qualifying victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse (including those reporting to the police, or those who are subject to Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) or report to the Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC)). The overall purpose of the new service is to provide co-ordinated and tailored support, responsive to individual need, in partnership with established services. It will mean victims are well-informed and listened to and that they are referred on to specialist services, as may be required, for further support and care. The service is intended to help victims feel safe and to help ensure that the risk of any further harm, especially serious harm, is greatly reduced or eliminated. This contract involves the provision and management of a new advocacy service on behalf of DoJ and PSNI - "the Clients". Tackling domestic and sexual violence and abuse is a key priority for the Justice Minister, as well as for the PSNI Chief Constable, and much work has already been taken forward, and continues to be taken forward to try to address this issue - at a strategic, as well as an operational, level and in partnership with the other Departments within the Executive and statutory and voluntary sector bodies. The primary aim of the new service is to provide victims of domestic and/or sexual violence and abuse with access to a high quality and streamlined support service tailored to individual need. This can have positive outcomes for victims accessing the service. For some, this may be in terms of helping to keep them safe and reduce or eliminate risk of any further harm, especially serious harm. For others, an advocate could be considered a lynchpin to ensuring they remain engaged in the criminal justice system. The ability to provide a more positive experience for the victim could potentially lead to enhanced confidence in the system more generally. The primary objectives of the advocacy service will be to: * act as a first point of contact for victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse to enable them to better cope with the aftermath of that crime; * assess individual need and risk and develop a safety support plan tailored to individual need; * offer accurate, timely, non-judgemental and impartial support and signposting information in relation to domestic and sexual violence and abuse on a range of issues and encouraging victims to report crimes/incidents to PSNI; * provide guidance and information, referring victims on to other statutory and non-statutory agencies for specialist support as appropriate; * help maintain and encourage engagement of victims experiencing domestic and sexual violence and/or abuse within the criminal justice system; and * work pro-actively with PSNI and SARC colleagues to support them, including attending and providing relevant briefings and meetings as required and including providing reports to help advise and inform police officers/SARC staff on related issues.

### Lot Information

Lot 1

DoJ, in partnership with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), wishes to appoint a service provider to deliver a new Northern Ireland-wide advocacy service to support qualifying victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse (including those reporting to the police, or those who are subject to Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) or report to the Rowan Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC)). The overall purpose of the new service is to provide co-ordinated and tailored support, responsive to individual need, in partnership with established services. It will mean victims are well-informed and listened to and that they are referred on to specialist services, as may be required, for further support and care. The service is intended to help victims feel safe and to help ensure that the risk of any further harm, especially serious harm, is greatly reduced or eliminated. This contract involves the provision and management of a new advocacy service on behalf of DoJ and PSNI - "the Clients". Tackling domestic and sexual violence and abuse is a key priority for the Justice Minister, as well as for the PSNI Chief Constable, and much work has already been taken forward, and continues to be taken forward to try to address this issue - at a strategic, as well as an operational, level and in partnership with the other Departments within the Executive and statutory and voluntary sector bodies. The primary aim of the new service is to provide victims of domestic and/or sexual violence and abuse with access to a high quality and streamlined support service tailored to individual need. This can have positive outcomes for victims accessing the service. For some, this may be in terms of helping to keep them safe and reduce or eliminate risk of any further harm, especially serious harm. For others, an advocate could be considered a lynchpin to ensuring they remain engaged in the criminal justice system. The ability to provide a more positive experience for the victim could potentially lead to enhanced confidence in the system more generally. The primary objectives of the advocacy service will be to: * act as a first point of contact for victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse to enable them to better cope with the aftermath of that crime; * assess individual need and risk and develop a safety support plan tailored to individual need; * offer accurate, timely, non-judgemental and impartial support and signposting information in relation to domestic and sexual violence and abuse on a range of issues and encouraging victims to report crimes/incidents to PSNI; * provide guidance and information, referring victims on to other statutory and non-statutory agencies for specialist support as appropriate; * help maintain and encourage engagement of victims experiencing domestic and sexual violence and/or abuse within the criminal justice system; and * work pro-actively with PSNI and SARC colleagues to support them, including attending and providing relevant briefings and meetings as required and including providing reports to help advise and inform police officers/SARC staff on related issues.

Options: Initial period - 3 years2 options to extend, each of 2 years

## Key Details

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication source | Find A Tender Service |
| Latest notice | https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/007588-2021 |
| Notice type | Award Notice |
| Procurement type | Standard |
| Procurement category | Services |
| Procurement method | Open |
| Procurement method details | Open procedure |
| Tender suitability | Not specified |
| Awardee scale | SME |
| All stages | Award |

## Dates

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Publication date | 12 Apr 2021 |
| Submission deadline | Not specified |
| Future notice date | Not specified |
| Award date | 6 Apr 2021 |
| Contract period | Not specified |
| Recurrence | Not specified |

## Values

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender value | Not specified |
| Lots value | Not specified |
| Awards value | Not specified |
| Contracts value | £9,000,000 |

## Status

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Tender status | Complete |
| Lots status | Cancelled |
| Awards status | Active |
| Contracts status | Active |

## Buyer

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Main buyer | DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NI |
| Additional buyers | POLICE SERVICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND |
| Locality | BELFAST |
| Post town | Northern Ireland |
| Postcode | BT3 9ED |
| Country | Northern Ireland |
| ITL 1 | TLN Northern Ireland |
| ITL 2 | TLN0 Northern Ireland |
| ITL 3 | TLN06 Belfast |
| Local authority | Belfast |
| Electoral ward | Sandown |
| Westminster constituency | Belfast East |
| Delivery location | TLN Northern Ireland |

## Supplier

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Number of suppliers | 1 |
| Supplier names | INFORMATION WITHHELD FOR SECURITY REASONS |

## CPV Codes

### Divisions

- 85 - Health and social work services

### Codes

- 85312310 - Guidance services

## Release History

- 12 Apr 2021 at 12:24 - Award - Award Notice - https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/007588-2021

## Notice URLs

- https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:619179-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML
- https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/
- https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/topics/procurement
- https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/
- https://www.psni.police.uk/

## Provenance

This Markdown file is an alternate public rendering of the D3 Tenders contract record. The canonical page is https://d3tenders.com/contract/?ocid=ocds-h6vhtk-02a515. The underlying structured data is available as OCDS JSON at https://d3tenders.com/contract/ocds-h6vhtk-02a515.json.