Affinity Vanguard Programme · UK public procurement notice

CPV: Health services

Procedure method

Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition

Legal basis

CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)

Procurement category

Services

Notice status

Awarded without competition

Procurement threshold

Unspecified in notice

Regulatory regime

Standard

Commercial structure

Stand-alone contract (no framework)

Competition type

Direct award (no call for competition)

GPA / WTO covered

Unspecified in notice

Recurring procurement

Unspecified in notice

First published

29 Dec 2023, 18:28 GMT

Last source update

1 Feb 2024, 16:14 GMT

FTS notice number

2024/S 000-003421

Classification (CPV)

Health services

Delivery area

East of England (UKH23)

Official registry OCID

ocds-h6vhtk-042a30 Find a Tender

Why no open competition

The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

Published justification

Following the success of the Power project across Southend Essex and Thurrock, (SET), West Essex CCG was approached by NHSE/I and invited to submit an EOI to be a Vanguard for applying the Framework for Integrated Care across SET in December 2021, with an award made in August 2021. This provides an opportunity for health, education, social care and health and justice partners to work together to co-design a model across Southend Essex and Thurrock.

There is a cohort of vulnerable children and young people between the ages of 0-18 with complex needs who experience some of the highest levels of health inequality. Their needs are defined as ‘complex’, as they often are multiple, persistent, severe and framed by family and social contexts i.e. prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences

The Framework is designed using evidence-informed best practice to integrate and support services in order to intervene earlier in the pathway and stop children and young people’s progression into the justice and secure estate, or an unnecessary Tier 4 hospital admission, or other inappropriate out of area placement; providing better outcomes for all.

The Affinity proposal was created in conjunction with partners across the system; the criteria was to invest in additional support for the most vulnerable children and young people who have complex needs and can be described as presenting with high risk, high harm behaviours and high vulnerability. The offer aims to build trauma-informed care and formulation-driven, evidence based whole system approach to providing integrated support and creating change for the most vulnerable.

The key objective for this Vanguard is to improve CYP wellbeing, displaying direct improvement in their mental health, and emotional regulation; especially to flourish in education and learning. Our vision is to ensure that children and young people are enabled to lead an improved purpose in life including education; that they are supported by staff to re-enter/remain in mainstream education where appropriate, and to enjoy and achieve through positive learning experiences. This will also enable them to further improve educational attendance and engagement as well as preventing sanctions, planned isolations and school exclusions.

The Vanguard draws upon the learning of the POWER programme, the schools wellbeing teams in Southend and Thurrock and the development work by our MH provider. This programme has now been in operation since September 2021 and is performing very well. The contract was awarded to HCRG. NHSE Health and Justice (H&J) has confirmed that funding for the current financial year 2023/24, is £572,985. NHSE H&J has also confirmed that this funding is now in place until 31st March 2028, and will be granted to HWE ICB for a continuation of this programme of works. This funding will be until 31 March 2028 and is ring fenced funding and can be used only for this service.

The service will be delivered by HCRG, they currently deliver the Children’s Pre-Birth – 19 service across Essex. This means that they are already embedded within the Essex system and have the existing relationships required to make a success of the Vanguard from the start; they are also in a position to continue this programme of works. Embarking on a procurement process would therefore not be feasible in this instance.

The partnership with schools within the existing commissioned services is crucial to the Vanguards success; the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service is able to offer this solution to ensure the fit with existing service provision, access to schools, and the offer of a family centric and holistic model. This means that HCRG is best placed to continue to deliver this service.

This also enables the ICB to utilise management structures, premises costs and recruitment processes as an ‘in kind’ element for the service.

• HCRGAwarded supplier The Heath Business and Technical Park, Runcorn, Cheshire, North West, WA7 4QX

No document links were published on the notice.