Child Sexual Abuse Emotional Support Service

NHS North East London (NEL) Integrated Care Board (ICB), hereafter referred to as "the Authority", is seeking to commission Child Sexual Abuse Emotional Support Service ("the Services"). The authority invites tenders from suitable organisations.

The Authority comprises the area covered by the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, City of London, Hackney, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. The Authority together with its system partners lead the development of the local healthcare system with its partners and the people of North East London, to ensure access to and the delivery of safe, effective and responsive services that reduce inequalities, meet identified needs and ensure the maximum positive health impact within the resources available.

The aim of the service is to improve the short and long-term emotional and mental health outcomes for children and young people.

The service is integral to the NEL CSA hub which also includes the paediatric led clinic and a CSA Social care liaison officer. The provider will be expected to work closely with the professionals delivering the Hub to develop an integrated pathway that is well communicated and understood by professionals referring into the service.

For the purpose of this service specification, child sexual abuse (CSA) will include all forms of contact and non-contact abuse. Contact abuse involves touching activities where an abuser makes physical contact with a child, including penetration. Non-contact abuse involves non-touching activities, such as grooming, exploitation, persuading children to perform sexual acts over the internet and flashing. Child sexual abuse includes:

• Intrafamilial abuse: Child sexual abuse perpetrated by a family member or that takes place within a family context or environment, whether or not by a family member.
• Extra-familial abuse: Child sexual abuse perpetrated outside of the family context or environment.
• Peer-on-peer abuse: abuse perpetrated by one young person against another young person of a similar age and can include sexual violence, behaviours and exploitation, as well as physical and emotional abuse.
• Child Sexual Exploitation: child sexual abuse in the context of exploitative relationships, contexts and situations by a person of any age - including another young person.
• Sexually Harmful Behaviours: sexual behaviour outside of their normative parameters of development (this includes, but is not exclusive to abusive behaviours).
• Sexual assault by an unknown person

The contract is for an initial period of 3 years with an option to extend by a period of up to 2 years. The annual contract value is £250,000 and the total contract value for the 5 year period is £1,250,000.

Additional information: An element of the funding/budget for this project is funded by an external source (£98,000 per annum for the first two years of the contract). This funding is received by the NHS on a biennial basis and therefore at the time of going to the market, we do not have funding confirmed beyond 2024/2025. We will provide adequate notice of any change in funding arrangements in accordance with the terms and conditions of the NHS Standard Contract. Commissioners will work with the successful provider to revise the service if necessary.

The services in the scope of this procurement fall within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") and therefore the procurement is not subject to the full regime of the Regulations but is instead governed by what is commonly referred to as the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77). The use of any language or terms found in the Regulations, the description of the procedure voluntarily adopted by the Authority, or any other indication, shall not be taken to mean that the Authority intends to hold itself bound by the Regulations, save those applicable to services coming within the scope of Regulations 74 to 77.

The Procurement process will be facilitated entirely online via ProContract portal. Interested Applicants wishing to participate in the procurement must register, express an interest and complete the online questionnaires hosted on the portal prior to the deadline for submission. All clarification requests and correspondence pertaining to this ITT opportunity must be directed through the portal. A timetable for the procurement, guidance re: process, and supplementary information relating to each contract opportunity is also available from the portal.