NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board

Contracts

• Affinity Vanguard - Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board · HCRG (formerly Virgin)

  Signed

  11 Apr 2023

  Value

  £1,157,880

  Period

  … – 31 Mar 2023

  Status

  active

  • Change During 2021/22 West Essex became a Vanguard site to apply the framework for integrated care; this provided an opportunity for education, health and care, and health and justice partners to work together and design a service model across Southend Essex and Thurrock (SET) for a cohort of highly vulnerable children and young people (CYP) between the ages of 5 -16 with complex needs and who experience some of the highest levels of health inequality. The framework is designed using evidence-informed best practice, the aim of the Vanguard is to promote collaboration across services to integrate and deliver trauma-informed care. The basis for the service model is to integrate education and mental health services, intervene earlier in the pathway and stop children and young people’s progression into the youth justice and secure estate, an unnecessary Tier 4 hospital admission, or other inappropriate out of area placement. A key objective for the Vanguard is to ensure that children and young people are enabled to lead an improved purpose in life including education, that they are supported by staff to re-enter/remain in mainstream education where appropriate, and to enjoy and achieve through positive learning experiences. West Essex (now Herts and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB)) is one of three Vanguard sites in the first wave. The Vanguard is delivered by HCRG Care Services Ltd (HCRG) (formerly Virgin Care) on behalf of West Essex on a pan Essex footprint and has received national interest. Funding was awarded by NHSE Health and Justice for a period of three years. The Vanguard is now in its 2nd operational year and has been very successful, and effective; schools are requesting further support. Demand is outstripping capacity and the service has now ceased accepting any new referrals during 2022/23. Being a Vanguard, and a totally new service developed to address the previously unmet emotional and behavioral need in this group of CYP, commissioning partners across the 3 ICBs could not have possibly known the likely demand, which has been consistent since mobilization in September 2021 It was agreed that the service provider, HCRG, required additional resource in recognition of the Vanguards success and current high demand; the SET Executive Collaborative Commissioning Forum (Exec CCF) agreed to utilize surplus 2022/23 LTP funding value £207,113 on a non-recurrent basis to address the current contractual cost pressure and alleviate the need for temporarily ceasing referrals into the service. The additional investment during 2022/23 would enable the Affinity Vanguard to support an additional 172 CYP in an educational setting across the three ICB footprints covering Essex. The decision to proceed with completion of this Waiver Form and award HCRG additional funding was formally approved at the meeting of the SET Exec CCF on 30th November 2022 and endorsed by West Essex Senior Management Team (SMT) on 19th December 2022. The contract hosted by Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB as the lead commissioner and covered by this Waiver Form is: • HCRG Care Services Ltd (HCRG) • Service Provider since September 2021 • Current contract value £422,083 per annum (excludes VAT) • Service Description Affinity Vanguard - schools and family work to improve CYP wellbeing, displaying direct improvement in their mental health, emotional regulation and well being Cumulative value of spend for this contract to date with HCRG is £814,298 (excluding the value of this waiver). The original contract was approved via a waiver (reference number 242) through West Essex CCG with a total value of £1,266,249. The discrepancy in the value of the contract from the original waiver is noted, this is as the first year was not mobilized until part year, therefore the actual cost is lower. The expected value of this waiver is £343,582. If the waiver is approved the total cumulative spend with HCRG will be £1,157,880. The additional funding is non r, Need for modification brought about by circumstances which a diligent contracting authority/entity could not foresee: Modification was necessary

Dispute resolution & review bodies

• High Court of Justice England and WalesReview body London
• NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care BoardReview contact point Welwyn Garden City