Community Connectors for Frimley CCG

Community Connectors for Frimley CCG Prior Information Notice

Frimley ICS was successfully awarded funding from NHS England to be one of 12 national early implementer sites to deliver Community Mental Health transformation. This has enabled the design and implementation of integrated primary and community mental health care for adults and older adults with significant mental illness (SMI), built around Primary Care Networks (PCN)s, so that more patients with SMI are effectively supported in primary care.

As part of the ICS-wide Community Mental Health Transformation programme, each of the nine Primary Care Network's across East Berkshire will have their own dedicated Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICS) Team. MHICS offers a service to patients in primary care with significant mental health difficulties who have not met the criteria for, or whose needs are not met by existing primary and secondary care mental health services. Flow into the MHICS service is mainly from primary care, but also for patients stepping down from secondary care.

To meet national requirements for integrated partnership-working between primary care and the local VCSE sector to support people holistically in local communities whilst addressing wider determinants of mental ill-health, the CCG is looking to commission a number of Community Connector roles employed by voluntary sector partner organisations to work with the MHICS teams across East Berkshire.

The Community Connector role will form part of the core MHICS team (1.0 wte Community Connector per PCN (total 9.0wte); plus 2 x 0.5 wte Leads across E Berks). The Community Connector role will:

• Help identify psychoeducational, emotional, socio-economic needs that impact on mental well-being through direct one-to-one work with MHICS clients, and use this understanding to support engagement and access to appropriate local and community resources
• Actively link, develop and bridge out to the infrastructure of VCSE support services across Bracknell, Windsor and Slough, to offer:

o Earlier intervention

o Longer appointment time

o Practical support and help

o Guided self-help resources

o Follow ups and ongoing support

o Onward bridging where needed

o Links with community resources

o Particular links into Well-being Services and Carer Support

• In line with a client's goals and needs, brief psychoeducation/psychosocial approaches may be employed, which, when within their competency, may be delivered by Community Connectors and / or jointly with the MHPs. The aim of interventions is to support understanding of difficulties and offer interventions to support movement toward personal goals or access other services, with a recovery focus. This may include for example: psychoeducation; psychosocial formulation; brief CBT informed approaches; emotion regulation; motivational interviewing; solution focused approaches
• Maintain up to date knowledge of local resources, informing the work of community assets mapping with reference to the local population needs

Community Connector activity is collated as part of the national evaluation process as directed by NHS England; this includes quarterly reporting of key data relating to the community mental health transformation programme.

It is Frimley CCG's intention to directly award Buckinghamshire MIND a contract for 2 years without undertaking a competitive procurement process. This is due to the established relationship that has already been developed with MIND and their track record of local service provision and knowledge that has already been gained and is in place. It is believed that by undergoing a full procurement that there would be considerable disruption to the programme and an adverse impact on patient outcomes. However, before this award is made the CCG is open to hearing from other providers who genuinely believe they would be in a position to provide this service and offer best value to the CCG. If this is the case, please contact [email protected], Lead Senior Procurement Manager (cc'ing [email protected]) by 5pm 25th May 2022 with a brief explanation as to why you believe your organisation would be in a position to provide this service.

This processed is being managed by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner(s). Additional information: The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but is instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).