Tower Hamlets Mental Health Supported Employment Service

Published date: 14 July 2015

Withdrawn opportunity - This means that the contract has been withdrawn early. This could be due to a change of circumstances.

Closing: 7 August 2015

Contract summary

Industry

Health and social work services - 85000000

Location of contract

London

Value of contract

£200,000 to £300,000

Procurement reference

NEL CSU/WELC/TH/JC/2015/00038

Published date

14 July 2015

Closing date

7 August 2015

Contract start date

1 April 2016

Contract end date

30 March 2018

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

The Contract is likely to be co-commissioned between NHS Tower Hamlets CCG and an independent commissioner funded through the Cabinet Office. A payment by outcomes element will be included in the contracting model.

The new contract would commence from 1st April 2016.

This service will provide an intensive, personalised supported employment service to people in contact with secondary mental health services within Tower Hamlets.

The service will be expected to maintain high fidelity to the principles of Individual Placement and Support (IPS), an evidence-based model promoted by the Centre for Mental Health in the UK. The principles of IPS include, but are not limited, to:
• Focus on paid, competitive employment
• Employment specialists embedded in clinical mental health teams, with service users receiving employment advice alongside ongoing mental health support
• Rapid job search, followed by extended in-work support
• Low caseloads (typically 20-25)

Further information on IPS can be found at the Centre for Mental Health's website: http://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/individual-placement-and-support

We would look for providers to aim to become part of the Centre for Mental Health's Centres of Excellence programme over the course of the contract.

More information

Additional text: NHS Tower Hamlets CCG wishes to test market interest for a potential procurement for the Tower Hamlets Mental Health Supported Employment Service.
Our key requirements for suppliers of this service are:

• Knowledge, understanding, and - where possible - experience of delivering high-fidelity Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services. Note: Where suppliers have not delivered high-fidelity IPS previously, they may reference past experience of delivering other employment- or mental health-related services. In these cases, suppliers should carefully explain how the experience of delivering these services would enable them to deliver high-fidelity IPS. They should also demonstrate an understanding of how these services differed from IPS, for example because of higher caseloads or the use of a "train then place" approach that starts with work preparation activities before job search.
• Experience working with people in contact with secondary mental health services
• Capability and capacity to: hire and train employment specialists in a short period of time; manage staff working from multiple locations, ensuring that they deliver high-fidelity IPS to their service users; and implement high-quality performance monitoring systems to enable relevant data collection
• Experience and/or capability to work in close collaboration with an NHS Foundation Trust, including co-locating staff
• Appropriate financial management and governance structures in place

Suppliers are advised to express an interest if they meet the criteria identified above and would consider bidding for this service should the CCG opt to carry out a procurement.

You can express an interest by sending a brief e-mail to
Jacqueline Chambers via WELCPOD-procurement@nelcsu.nhs.uk

The deadline for submitting a response for this market testing exercise is at 7th August 2015 at 12pm. Your e-mail should include:

• Name of organisation
• Organisation type and legal form (charity, social enterprise, private company, etc.)
• Name and contact details of a lead contact
• Brief (max 100 word) description of experience working with people in contact with secondary mental health services
• Brief (max 100 word) description of experience providing IPS or other employment or vocational services
• Any critical questions that you need to answer to determine whether to continue to be interested in this procurement process. Please note there will be further opportunities to ask questions both prior to and during the process.

Please note that this is a market testing exercise to inform the CCGs' decision making process. This does not commit the CCG to carrying out a procurement process. A response to this notice places no obligation on the responding organisation to proceed with any subsequent procurement process.

About the buyer

Contact name

Jacqueline Chambers

Address

First floor, Clifton House
75-77 Worship Street
London
EC2A 2DU
England

Telephone

0203 688 2482

Email

WELCPOD-procurement@nelcsu.nhs.uk