Affinity Vanguard Programme

This is a Contract Award Notice to communicate a contract award made by the Contracting Authority; Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board, (hereinafter referred to as "the Authority") in compliance with their local standing financial instructions (SFIs).

On 29th December 2023, the Authority published a Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency Notice (VEAT) (Reference 2023/S 000-038046) to inform the market of its intention to award the contract. The Authority applied a voluntary 10-day standstill period prior to conclusion of the contract. The contract award is made to HCRG for the provision of the Affinity Vanguard Programme.

The proposed new contract is intended to start on 1st April 2024 and end on 31st March 2028. The expected value of this contract is £2,291,940. The value expressed in this notice is the expected value of the 4-year period. Please note that these are expected values and may be amended post contract finalisation with the provider.

HCRG has been providing this service since September 2021 and is due to expire on 31st March 2024. The total cumulative value of the contract since it started from 2021 to 2024 is £1,730,865, forecast to 31st March 2024, (excluding VAT and excluding the value of this new contract).

Additional information:

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.

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 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.