Direct Award Mental Health Employment Support and Employment Advice Services (Isle of Wight only)

Following on from the PIN placed on the 19th August 2021 Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight CCG, Isle of Wight only are awarding the Mental Health Employment Support and Employment Advice Services (Isle of Wight only) Contract to to OSEL Enterprises Ltd. For a 3-year contract with an annual capped value of £191,071 per annum and with the option to extend for a further 2 year or parts thereof, at Commission Discretion. Giving a total maximum contract value of £955,355 plus any contract uplifts as part of the standard NHS Contract and any national directives during the lifetime of the contract.

The CCG consider the justification for moving to direct award sound in that these services, (currently provided by OSEL), are well established and neither are subject to any significant change or service development, which other Mental Health (MH) services are as part of the continuing, island wide MH transformation process.

The current service comprises two elements :-

• The Mental Health Employment Advice Service is embedded and integrated into the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and receives referrals via the IOW NHS Trust Improved Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service to its trained employment advisors
• The Mental Health Employment Support Service receives referrals via Primary Care, Secondary Tier mental health services, social care and other third sector organisations etc.

The primary requirements for considering a direct award as the best contracting option, (as stated in the Procurement, Patient Choice and Competition Regs, (2013)), are as detailed below.

Based upon these criteria and noting that there are no significant service development or changes planned, a direct award process is justified for the services currently provided by OSEL.

These services are provided by OSEL Enterprises Ltd under one overarching contract and the Provider has a wide range of complex and long-term, well-established, integrated working frameworks across a range of statutory and voluntary organisations employing specialist multi-disciplinary staff.

OSEL Enterprises Ltd has strong, well established working relationships with sources of referral with team members embedded and integrated into specialist Early Intervention in Psychosis (EIP) and IAPT teams. The Provider also maintains strong working relationships with a range of Island based companies and other employing organisations which have been built upon over a number of years. Additionally, OSEL Enterprises is a direct employer offering place-based work experience and paid employment to those who access the MH Employment Support Service