Ageing Well - Psychosocial Support For People Living With Dementia

This notice is placed as a Prior Information Notice (PIN) to seek expressions of interest in being considered as the most suitable provider for the delivery of Psychosocial Support for People Living with Dementia in Brighton and Hove as part of an integrated, existing Ageing Well programme. Ageing Well Brighton and Hove is a partnership between ten local organisations delivering services for people aged 50+ in the city. The partnership was jointly commissioned by Brighton and Hove City Council and NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB), with Impact Initiatives as lead provider in 2019. The Ageing Well Service was recently recommissioned by Brighton and Hove City Council. The Psychosocial Support for People Living with Dementia strand of the service is now being commissioned separately by NHS Sussex for an 18 month period from 1 April 2025 in order to preserve continuity for the service users and their carers and volunteers. The range of services, groups and activities offered through the partnership aim to achieve the following outcomes: • Increase health and wellbeing • Reduce loneliness and social isolation • Support people to remain independent, •Enable people to live well in their communities, thus reducing the need for more intensive services including avoidance of hospital admission. Ensure a wide range of volunteer opportunities NHS Sussex (the Commissioner) is seeking to secure a Prime Provider who has the capability and capacity to deliver psychosocial support services, in line with the specified requirements. The services are integrated with the Brighton and Hove City Council Ageing Well Service and need to be delivered in existing established community locations across Brighton and Hove. This service is delivered at the following locations: St Richard's Community Centre in Hangleton and Knoll, Cornerstone Community Centre, Palmeira Square Hove and at the Woodingdean Community Centre. An estimated 55 separate psychosocial activities are delivered each quarter. The provision of volunteering opportunities is a significant feature of the programme and therefore the Provider should be aware of the impact of change and implications for workforce stability and delivery of the programme. The primary role of the service is to deliver: • Single Point of Contact (SPOC) dementia specialist working integrated within the Ageing Well information, advice and signposting service. The SPOC post is a part time role equivalent to 0.6FTE. This SPOC is utilised by people with dementia, their carers and families as well as health and social care professionals and VCSE staff. It is expected that the Provider will ensure that information about local services is available and up to date together with using other appropriate resources. • Delivery of Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) A local programme of appropriate group CST, with those who have participated in group CST having access to an age appropriate maintenance CST programme • Multicomponent activities. For example, lunch with the opportunity to socialise and learn a new craft or skill in a community venue led by people trained in CST. • City wide befriending volunteers for people aged 65+ living with mild to moderate memory loss or a diagnosis of dementia. • Group befriending events for people living with dementia on a monthly basis as well as groups for people with moderate dementia/memory loss. • Arts and crafts and other creative activities. NHS Sussex will be re-procuring the Memory Assessment Services (MAS) and Post Dementia Diagnosis Support Services (PDDSS) provision across the whole of Sussex in the near future. Psychosocial support services are likely to be included in the newly commissioned services. Therefore, there are no foreseeable changes over the life of this contract, such as additional funding, additional population/activity or new sites. It is the Commissioner's opinion that TUPE is unlikely to apply - due to the part-time contracts of existing staff and the significant number of volunteer staff (approximately 500+ volunteers are engaged in the Ageing Well Service). The contract will commence 1st April 2025 until 31st March 2026. The anticipated total contract value is £133,875. Providers wishing to express an interest must do so within the e-procurement system (https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome) where providers will be given access to a questionnaire which must be submitted to complete their expression of interest. Expressions of interest must be submitted no later than 5pm, 28th February 2025 via the e-procurement portal. This exercise is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner.