National Helpline for NHS staff

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need of establishing a suitable health and wellbeing offer for all our staff. As a result, we have operated a national staff support helpline since April 2020, to support our NHS staff who are under enormous pressure every day. The NHS staff helpline was also a key recommendation of the NHS Staff and Learners’ Mental Wellbeing Commission report in 2019: ‘A national NHS helpline service should be developed with the aim of providing a complete emotional support service to NHS staff and those learning in the NHS’.<br/><br/>Common themes that have emerged on the helpline in the past 18 months, that we want to continue supporting our staff with include - <br/>

• Concerns about the workplace or study<br/>
• Mental health issues / concerns<br/>
• COVID-19 concerns<br/>
• Family issues<br/>
• Isolation/loneliness<br/>
• Physical health/illness<br/>
• Relationship problems<br/><br/>The helpline is also identifying to a lesser extent, concerns relating to:<br/>
• Bereavement<br/>
• Violence/abuse<br/>
• Finance/unemployment<br/>
• Drug and/or alcohol misuse<br/>
• Bereaved by suicide<br/><br/>The requirement is for a staff support helpline, to continue to provide a psychological support offer for all NHS staff. This will aim to be a service provided for all staff during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond. The service is provided for all health and care workers across the country. Currently the helpline has experienced over 14,000 contacts directly. <br/><br/>The support line will offer NHS staff the opportunity to converse with trained crisis support workers, and if required, qualified clinical support where needed. The requirement will be to run a 7-day service, that can operate nationally, and is able to cater to all groups and demographics. The service will need to operate at the least, between 7:00am-11:00pm daily. <br/><br/>This will need to be set up and delivered at a relatively fast pace, to enable a continuation in service for our workforce. There is a clinical risk attached to the necessity to keep the service continuous for our users, and therefore a gap in service will not be acceptable (a short period of transition between an old supplier and a new one can be agreed however). <br/><br/>Additionally, the supplier should be able to provide anonymized and vital data, to the commissioning organisation, to provide further understanding of emerging concerns and issues related to the health and wellbeing of our workforce. The content, structure and delivery of the reports should be opened to change depending on the requirements of the commissioning organisation. <br/><br/>This will also conclude in an evaluation piece that will need to be carried out at intervals throughout the year. This will involve working with our evaluation lead to explore and deliver report/s through qualitive evaluation methods, such as interviews with users, to gain an in-depth understanding of helpline usage by staff. <br/><br/>Finally, the supplier should be able to provide some expertise and resource in supporting communications and marketing, to raise awareness of the helpline. <br/><br/>Pre-market Engagement<br/><br/>NHS England & Improvement are currently undertaking an options appraisal and as part of this have issued a Notice to the market to gauge supplier interest and capability in relation to continuing the delivery of this service.<br/><br/>NHS England & Improvement are aiming to enter into a 12-month contract with an approximate Year One value (12 months) of £600,000 exclusive of applicable VAT. Dependent on budget and performance the contract may be extended for a further 2 years.<br/><br/>Supplier Expressions of Interest<br/><br/>Interested suppliers should read the details attached to the notice which specify further details about the requirement, how to register an interest in the possible procurement and the submission requirements for registering an interest.<br/><br/>The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest is 5pm on 16/12/2021