Asylum Accommodation and Support centre at Wethersfield, Braintree

The Authority was informed by NHS England in Q4 2022/23 of the likely siting of Asylum Accommodation and Support Centre at Wethersfield.

This location falls within the boundaries of NHS Mid and South Essex ICB and therefore, the ICB is responsible for securing health services to the service users of this site.

Working with partners from across health and care, the Authority established a task and finish group for health and care provision to this site.

Key to the provision of health services, is the need to secure primary care provision for this population. This provision has two core aspects i) a comprehensive assessment of the health needs of the service users on arrival at the site and ii) the ongoing primary medical needs of this population.

The Authority has been working closely with the Home Office and other stakeholders to determine the optimal model of primary care provision to the site. On the basis of the likely significant requirement seven days a week during at least the early phase of this new development, the project group determined that the best model of provision was a dedicated service based on the Wethersfield site. This service will be flexed up and down depending on need (largely determined by the number of new arrivals and the total number of service users on site.

The Authority was required to identify a provider of this service at pace as the initial go live was planned for April (later revised to June 23). The Authority intends to extend the existing Special Allocations contract held by Commisceo for a period of 12 months from 1st April 2024 - 31st March 2025, and modify the scope of such contract, in order to secure primary medical services to the Asylum Accommodation and Support Centre at Wethersfield within the very tight deadline mandated by NHSE and Home Office.

In making this decision, the Authority considered that to be technically capable, the provider needed to:

• be an established provider of primary care and hold an existing contract with the ICB for the provision of GMS services potentially to any eligible patient living within the boundaries of the ICB.
• have suitable and relevant previous experience of support asylum hotels / provision of assessment and ongoing primary care to a large asylum hotel
• ability to quickly and safely mobilise (for example, have SystmOne Unit, and be fully set up on PCSE)
• have access to sufficient local and skilled workforce
• demonstrate that the provision of services will not compromise any other service commissioned from the provider.

There are two key factors that impact on the Authority's future commissioning intentions for this service.

a) It is unclear at this stage what (if any) impact the introduction of Integrated Neighbourhood Teams will have on the future service model. Further work is needed to explore this, alongside the development of the INT model across MSE.

b) The requirement to secure primary medical services to the Asylum Accommodation and Support Centre at Wethersfield.

The total estimated aggregate contract value over the 18 month term is £1,105,000. Additional information: The Service to which this procurement relates fall within Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 as amended by as amended by The Public Procurement (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, (the "Regulations"). As such, the Contracting Authority does not intend to hold itself bound by any of the Regulations, save those applicable to Schedule 3 Services.