Children and Young People's Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for Southend, Essex and Thurrock

Description

The purpose of this Notice is to confirm the award of a contract to North East London NHS Foundation
Trust (NELFT) to provide Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across Southend,
Essex and Thurrock. This award is being made following the successful completion of a procurement
process.

The contract advert (Find a Tender reference 2021/S 000-009636) was published by NHS West Essex Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG) on behalf of the 7 CCGs within Essex and the 3 Local Authorities. Since this
contract notice was published, the CCGs have been replaced with 3 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in line with the
Health and Care Act 2022.  The contract is led by Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB with the following organisations associates to the contract: Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, Mid and South Essex ICB, Southend Borough Council, Essex County Council and Thurrock Council.

The contract began on 1st April 2022 for a period of 7-years with the option to extend for a further 3-
years. The aggregate maximum value of the contract is £430m. The total price for the initial 7-year period
is £154,885,967.

The Thrive Model has been developed nationally. This has been endorsed by the 'Future in Mind' report,
it is therefore the intention to replicate a version of the Thrive Model in delivering the new service. The
model is a blend of Tier 2 and Tier 3 services with a seamless progression up or down for the service
user.

All children and families will receive support and services which are appropriate to their needs. For many
children this is likely to be community based, and should be easily and quickly accessible. Most young
people requiring CAMHS will present with mental health problems that are causing significant
impairments in their day-to-day lives. These presentations can result in both the need for scheduled
and/or unscheduled care.

CAMHS will be available for all children and young people who are aged 0 - 18 (25 if SEND), and who
meet the agreed CAMHS referral criteria. The eligibility criteria is set out within the service specification.

As a part of the contract North East Essex have commissioned an additional Children and Young People's
Mental Health Early Intervention Service (CYP EIS).

Additional information: 
The Authority may wish to introduce additional and/or expand the scope of services during the lifetime
of the contract ("Contract modification(s)"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where
additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the
Specification, at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by
the Authority and / or other Contracting Authorities, as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, the
Bidder should be aware that after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the successful Bidder
may be offered a variation to the contract to include the services set out in this section in accordance
with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (as amended The Public Procurement
(Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020).

NEE - EIS The services and associated specification and prices, commissioned within this contract may be
subject to review and change. With the creation of the ICB, the services may be reviewed across the Suffolk
and North East Essex footprint. Therefore the scope of the possible changes to be made to this contract
shall relate to the potential introduction of a larger population to support the ICB footprint (i.e. the
contract and specification may be amended to the Ipswich & East Suffolk and West Suffolk populations),
through a variation to the contract in accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the Public Contracts
Regulations 2015.

Mental Health Support Teams - Mid and South Essex ICB is developing a multi-year trajectory and a
regional plan for the future MHST Waves in accordance with NHS Englands 'Transforming Children and Young People's Mental Health Provision Green Paper'. theMental Health Support Teams are services which are designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in and around schools and colleges. This is an existing service delivered by North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), but may be included within the main
CAMHS Contract when this arrangement ends. It may also be that this service covers all 3 Essex ICBs as
well as Mid and South Essex.

NHS Long Term Plan - It is also recognised that the NHS Long Term Plan made a renewed commitment
that mental health services will grow faster than the overall NHS budget, creating a new national
ringfenced investment fund worth overall at least £2.3bn a year by 2023/24. This is to enable further
service expansion and faster access to community crisis and mental health services for both adults and
particularly children and young people amongst growing visibility and concern about areas of
longstanding unmet health need, such as in young people's mental health services. This means that
during the life of the contract, the budget is likely to grow and the scope of the services being delivered
as a part of this contract may increase.