Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) in Avon on behalf of NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) South West

NHS England and NHS Improvement South East (the Commissioner) sought to commission Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) Services in Avon.

Initially, the commissioner were seeking a provider who can deliver MHTRs focussing on Bristol Magistrates Court.

MHTRs form part of the wider Community Sentence Treatment Requirements (CSTRs) Programme which is a partnership between the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I), Public Health England (PHE) and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

The CSTR Programme aims to develop pathways to enable and facilitate the increased use of all three treatment requirements:

• Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs)
• Drug Rehabilitation Requirements (DRRs)
• Alcohol Treatment Requirements (ATRs)

ATRs and DRRs in Avon were outside the scope of this procurement, beyond the co-ordination of CSTRs for combined orders. However, there is an expectation that MHTR and ATR & DTR providers will work closely together in the best interests of the service user, especially where it can be identified that a combined order is the best outcome.

MHTR in the context of the CSTR programme is intended for the sentencing of individuals convicted of an offence(s) which has crossed the community order sentencing threshold and may be used as an alternative to short custodial sentences for individuals who may have range of mental health, personality disorder and psychological issues/vulnerabilities which do not require forensic or secondary care treatment.

The aims of the service are to:

• Increase the proportion of offenders with mental health issues for whom an effective mental health treatment plan is in place.
• Reduce re-offending by addressing the underlying causes of offending behaviour.
• Prevent custodial sentences (especially short ones), by offering robust community treatment options.
• Provide tailored mental health support to the most vulnerable offenders. Individuals supported by pilot sites included those who suffered from post-traumatic stress, trauma, bipolar, personality and phobia disorders, psychosis and ASD.

Contracts will be for an initial term of 2 years, with a possible extension of a further one year, as defined and at the discretion of the Commissioner.

The substantive/initial financial envelope relates to delivering an indicative volume of 160 MHTRs annually, primarily to Bristol Magistrates Court.

The Commissioner had a maximum financial envelope of £162,500 per annum for this element.

Services commenced on 01 August 2022.

During the life of the contract, it is likely that the Commissioner will wish to work with the successful provider to 'scale up' the service in order to deliver MHTRs to other Magistrates and Crown Courts across Avon. The additional activity is not guaranteed at this time.

The timing and funding for the scale up will be agreed with the provider based on operational capacity and availability of partnership funding.

The total potential maximum contract value for the 3 year contract (including 1 year extension option and potential scale up) was £780,000.

Further information in regard to the potential 'scale up' of delivery, including indicative activity and budgets, was detailed within the Invitation to Tender document. 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 are instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).