Counselling Services - Bedfordshire

East London NHS Foundation Trust (The Authority) seeks a partnership with an innovative organisation to help us providing counselling services in Bedfordshire.<br/><br/>We have been providing mental health and community services for over 18 years, with our service users being central to everything we do. We serve some of the most demographically diverse and in some cases highly deprived populations of the UK which includes people at different stages in their lives such as children, young people, working age adults, and older adults. <br/>Everything we do is driven by our values of care, respect and inclusivity. Our patients’ needs matter most and we are constantly working to improve our support for all who use and have contact with our services.<br/>We believe that staff who feel valued and are truly engaged by the Trust deliver better outcomes for our patients. We have embarked on an ambitious Quality Improvement Programme to transform the culture of the Trust to one of continuous improvement, delivered through participation of all staff and with service users, carers and families at the heart of our efforts to improve.<br/><br/>The counselling service must be delivered in line with the IAPT model and use the Trust’s clinical record system to maintain accurate records of appointments attended, outcome measures, etc. in line with the national Minimum Data Set (MDS) for IAPT.<br/><br/>Due to Covid-19 both the overall IAPT service and the Counselling component are currently being delivered mainly by video and telephone but in future we expect to return to offering face-to-face delivery for those who prefer it. Therefore, an existing local presence in Bedfordshire, or the ability to develop this quickly, would be an advantage.<br/><br/>The service consists of a time-limited course of counselling following the principles of the national IAPT programme. The provider will be expected to accept referrals following assessment by ELFT IAPT clinicians, managing the waiting list effectively to keep waiting times at an acceptable level, and delivering effective therapy to help service users to achieve a Recovery outcome, as defined in the IAPT manual. The service will provide brief counselling, recording the IAPT minimum data set at each appointment, with a target to deliver at least 200 (TBC) attended appointments per month (likely to equate to around 40-45 people per month starting treatment). These activity targets may be increased (in agreement with the provider) to reflect increasing local access targets and/or demand for counselling.<br/><br/>The provider will operate as an integral part of the Bedfordshire Wellbeing Service and adhere to its performance, operational, and safeguarding standards.