Find a TenderAwarded without competition
Published 26 Feb 2025, 14:59 GMT

Official UK procurement notice

NHS SY ICB - Crisis Text Line Service

Official notice

Authority: NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (Central government)

ServicesAward procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Published estimate£765,000exc. VAT
Awarded 13 Mar 2025no call for competition
Awarded to Mental Health Innovations

What is being bought

Published requirement description

This is a contract that will provide a clinically led Crisis Text service to the population of South Yorkshire.

CPV: Rehabilitation services

The lotProcurement structure

single lot · no lot value published
Lot #1The decription of the service is:Awarded

The decription of the service is:<br/><br/>A high quality Crisis Text Service will provide timely, accessible, and effective support including a range of interventions tailored to meet the diverse needs of service users including:<br/>

  • Providing a clinically led service with Mental Health Practitioners undertaking the text based conversations.<br/>
  • Providing a service that caters to individuals across all age groups, ensuring that no one is excluded from accessing support.<br/>
  • Recognising that crisis can occur at any time and to anyone thus ensuring that the crisis text service operates 24/7, 365 days a year.<br/>
  • Offering the following range of support interventions to address the diverse needs of service users: Text based crisis intervention, emotional support, referrals to appropriate services, safety planning and risk formulation.<br/>
  • Ensuring appropriately qualified Mental Health Practitioners undertake comprehensive training that covers essential topics such as active listening, de-escalation techniques, suicide risk formulation, risk assessment and safety planning across all ages.<br/>
  • Ensuring clinical supervision and support for staff<br/>
  • Mental Health Practitioners completing training that addresses the diverse needs of all age groups and populations to ensure that all individuals receive culturally sensitive and inclusive support that meets their unique needs.<br/>
  • Integration with NHS 111 – Mental Health Option and signposting to local crisis services across South Yorkshire.<br/>
  • Providing South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board with quarterly Service Quality Performance Reports which detail the number of texters and conversations, escalations, day of the week, time of the day, topic of conversations, demographic breakdowns, and user satisfaction.<br/>
  • Providing ongoing support from a Partnership Manager, including marketing resources, quarterly review meetings, check-in calls, email support, contract review meeting and responses within 24 hours.<br/>
  • Being committed to working collaboratively with SYICB and other local partners to introduce more efficient and innovative ways of working.<br/>
  • Supporting with insight for local and targeted promotion across South Yorkshire.<br/>
  • Considering local feedback for service improvements.<br/><br/>This notice is an intention to award a contract under the most suitable provider process.<br/><br/>The approximate lifetime value of the service is £765,000.<br/><br/>The dates that the contract will run are 1/05/2025 to 30/04/2030.<br/><br/>This is a new service with a new provider. Additional information: Mental Health Innovations have been deemed the Most Suitable Provider for the Crisis Text Line Service as they were the only Supplier who registered their interest, responded to the essential service criteria questionnaire, answering yes to all key questions.<br/><br/>This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this award. The standstill period begins on the day after the publication of this notice. Representations by providers must be made to the relevant authority by 26/03/2025. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award under the PSR.<br/><br/>Key criteria 1. Quality and innovation - Weighting 40%<br/>SHOUT is the UK’s only free, 24/7 text messaging support service, powered by mental health innovations The service is proven to reach new audiences who prefer to text and helps to take pressure off local crisis phone lines and face-to-face services. Using technology, Shout is accessible by communities across the length and breadth of the UK, reaching underserved populations who would not otherwise have a means of support. <br/><br/>In Shout’s five years of existence, they have scaled the service to take over 2,900,000 conversations with more than 900,000 children, young people and adults who have needed immediate mental health support. Conversations with Shout's clinically-led service are taken by mental health professionals, overseen by Clinical Supervisors and a 24/7 qualified safeguarding team. Commissioning Shout enables ICBs to deliver against NHSE advisory specifications for implementation of 24/7 crisis text message services, integrated with their local services, including 111 phone service provision.<br/><br/>Implementation support<br/>
  • Ongoing support from Partnership Manager, including quarterly review meetings, check-in calls, email support, contract review meeting and responses within 24 hours.<br/>
  • Invite to Community of Practice Events and Quarterly clinical webinar for ongoing professional development and sharing key insights<br/>
  • Local signposts for local texters and ‘How to' guide to help you get the best out of your keyword.<br/>
  • Mental Health Innovations lead or clinician to speak at one virtual event <br/><br/>Data and clinical insights <br/>Bespoke keyword chosen by your organisation, or use of the ‘SHOUT’ keyword<br/>
  • Service KPIs to be provided on a monthly basis, based on your keyword, including number of texters and conversations, active rescues, day of the week, time of the day, topic of conversations and demographic breakdowns.<br/>
  • Detailed data and clinical insight report every six months including:<br/>o Demographic breakdowns (dependent on texters completing feedback survey).<br/>o Number of active rescues per month and breakdown of associated stages.<br/>o Most common conversation issues.<br/>o Number of conversations signposted to local services.<br/>o Conversation outcome details.<br/>o Where texters heard about the service.<br/>o A search for three agreed data or clinical topics with clinical insight and analysis.<br/>o Benchmarks of keyword specifics against two Shout datasets such as age or gender.…
Delivery: Yorkshire & Humber · South Yorkshire

Procedure terms & legal framework

From the official record · publisher note attached
Procedure method
Award procedure without prior publication of a call for competition
Legal basis
CELEX · 32014L0024 Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (Directive 2014/24/EU)
Procurement category
Services
Notice status
Awarded without competition
Procurement threshold
Unspecified in notice
Regulatory regime
Standard
Commercial structure
Stand-alone contract (no framework)
Competition type
Direct award (no call for competition)
GPA / WTO covered
Unspecified in notice
Recurring procurement
Unspecified in notice
First published
26 Feb 2025, 14:59 GMT
Last source update
29 May 2025, 09:22 BST
Authority reference
2025/S 000-009495
FTS notice number
2025/S 000-028321
Classification (CPV)
Rehabilitation services
Delivery area
Yorkshire & Humber (UKE3)
Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-04e829 Find a Tender
Why no open competition
The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive
Published justification

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) intention to award notice. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this award. The standstill period begins on the day after the publication of this notice. Representations by providers must be made to decision makers by 26/03/2025. This contract has not yet formally been awarded; this notice serves as an intention to award under the PSR.

Publisher note: Written representations should be sent to: [email protected]<br/><br/>The decision makers were - <br/><br/>Programme Manager - Mental Health, <br/>SYICB, Portfolio Director - Mental Health, SYICB, <br/>SYB Provider Collaborative Director, SYB Specialised Commissioning Provider Collaborative Hub, <br/>Head of Public Health Barnsley Council & SRO for MHLDA - Barnsley Place ICB<br/><br/>No conflicts of interest were declared.<br/><br/><br/>Please see below for a continuation of section II.2.14.1<br/><br/>Key criteria 4. Improving Access, reducing health inequalities and facilitating choice - Weighting 10%<br/><br/>Key insights into existing usage:<br/>• 63% are children and young people.<br/>• 26% of school-aged texters are receiving free school meals.<br/>• 55% have no-one else to talk to and 38% have never spoken to anyone about their mental health before.<br/>• 18% identify as Autistic and 19% live with ADHD.<br/>• 10% live with learning disabilities.<br/>• 38% identify as LGBTQ+.<br/><br/>Clinical Supervisors are registered with a professional body and trained to Level 3 safeguarding. Shout has developed an additional internal Digital Safeguarding training which is undertaken by all clinical staff biannually. All Supervisors have access to our Safeguarding Panel composed of the Head of Safeguarding, a Senior Designated Safeguarding Lead (SDSL) and five Designated Safeguarding Leads for advice and guidance at any time. <br/><br/>Safeguarding forums aimed at continued professional development are held monthly. Clinical Supervisors can discuss themes emerging in text conversations in these forums and the Safeguarding Team holds drop-in sessions for discussion of specific issues. <br/><br/>Conversations are routinely reviewed by MHI Coaches, Clinical Quality Panel and Safeguarding Panels. Coaches are permanent Shout staff who provide support and advice to volunteers and clinicians when they are off the platform. Their role is to be a readily available point of contact for all volunteers and staff to ensure well-being and consistent feedback and improvement across the organisation.<br/><br/>MHI will continue to work on Translation services to be able to work with other languages. This will require 100% confidence in an online translation service. Currently, should someone text in with a different language we will translate that the Shout service is English speaking only and direct them to our website hosting multiple resources in multiple languages<br/><br/>Shout is a free text service, irrelevant of what network or phone you have, whether it is a contract phone or pay as you go the service is free to text. It doesn't require any data, Wi-Fi or registration to get access. It doesn't even need a smart phone.<br/><br/>According to USwitch, as of 2023, half of all nine-year-olds in the UK own a smartphone and almost all (98%) UK adults aged 16-24 now have a smartphone which will allow access to the Crisis Text Service. <br/><br/>Key criteria 5. Social Value - Weighting 10%<br/><br/>MHI are an organisation who are united behind their values and shared objectives, and:<br/>• Encourage active contribution from staff to a supportive, positive and progressive organisational culture.<br/>• Promote staff and volunteer wellbeing and facilitate continued growth in expertise, knowledge and professionalism.<br/>• Put our service users at the heart of everything we do, including increased engagement of service users in the development and evaluation of<br/>our work.<br/><br/>MHI have a Diversity and Inclusion statement and are committed to equal opportunities for all.<br/>‘Our goal is to be a diverse and inclusive organisation that is representative of the UK population at all levels, including our Board of Trustees, our staff, our volunteers and our beneficiaries’. We believe that diversity among our staff will lead us to have a creative and empowered team.

How it was run

Official notice
Run through: portal not identified

Tender documents are also served through a separate tool: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome ↗

Submission deadline
—

Timeline

25 Feb 2025 → 29 May 2025 · 2 dates
  1. Next notice expected
    25 Feb 2025
  2. Notice published
    29 May 2025, 09:22 BST

Notice history

2 events · 3 releases on Find a Tender · since 14 Mar 2025
  1. Status changed to complete
    14 Mar 2025, 15:30 GMT
  2. Procurement method changed
    14 Mar 2025, 15:30 GMT
Published amendments (1)

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) confirmation of contract award notice. This contract has been awarded under the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 do not apply to this award. This contract has now been formally awarded using the most suitable provider process.The contract w…

Commercial outcome & contract awards

Published awards, contracts and bid statistics, not a forecast
Awards 1
Awarded value £765,0001 contract exc. VAT
Bids received 4
Contracts signed 1latest 13 Mar 2025
Awarded toValueDateStatus
Mental Health Innovations£765,000 †—Awarded

Contracts

Bid statistics published by the authority

BidsSMEVCSEValid bid range
4bids———

Contracting authority & participating public bodies

NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Contracting authorityCentral GovernmentBody governed by public lawHealth 197 Eyre Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire & Humber, S1 3FGContact name, email

Dispute resolution & review bodies

  • Independent Choice and Procurement Panel.Review body London

Bidders & participating suppliers

1 commercial party on the notice

Official documents & specifications

Official links; attachments are not copied

No document links were published on the notice.