PRJ 2305 - Intercultural Therapeutic Service for Lewisham

NHS South East London Integrated Care Board (SEL ICB) intends to award a single contract for the delivery of the Intercultural Therapeutic Service (ITS) in the London Borough of Lewisham. The service provides a specialist community-based psychological therapy offer designed to address mental health inequalities and improve access to culturally responsive therapeutic support for people who may experience barriers to engaging with, benefiting from, or remaining within mainstream mental health services.

The service delivers trauma-informed, intercultural psychotherapy and psychological support to adults experiencing mental health difficulties, emotional distress, trauma, social exclusion and other complex challenges affecting wellbeing. The service is specifically designed to support individuals and communities who may be underserved by traditional mental health pathways, including people from ethnically diverse communities, refugees and asylum seekers, migrants, and individuals whose experiences of culture, identity, discrimination, migration, faith or trauma are significant factors in their mental health and recovery.

The service provides structured therapeutic interventions, assessment, formulation and ongoing psychological support delivered through an intercultural and racially aware clinical framework. The approach recognises the impact of social, cultural and structural factors on mental health and seeks to deliver interventions that are culturally appropriate, trauma-informed and responsive to the needs of Lewisham's diverse population.

A distinctive feature of the service is its integrated academic-clinical model. Therapeutic interventions are delivered within a specialist clinical training environment supported by qualified psychotherapists, experienced clinical supervisors and academic expertise. The service includes a comprehensive supervision and governance framework that supports safe clinical practice, reflective learning, quality assurance, workforce development and continuous service improvement. This model enables the provision of a specialist therapeutic offer not routinely available through standard counselling, wellbeing or talking therapy services and contributes to the development of a culturally competent future mental health workforce.

The provider will receive referrals through agreed referral pathways, undertake assessment and allocation processes, deliver time-limited and longer-term therapeutic interventions where appropriate, maintain robust clinical records and outcome monitoring processes, and ensure effective risk management, safeguarding and clinical governance arrangements are in place throughout the contract period.

The provider will work collaboratively with local mental health services, primary care, voluntary and community sector organisations, social care and other relevant partners to ensure integrated pathways of support. The service will maintain effective arrangements for onward referral, step-up and step-down support as required, ensuring that service users receive coordinated and person-centred care.

The provider will be responsible for maintaining appropriate clinical leadership, workforce capacity, supervision arrangements, safeguarding procedures, information governance, quality assurance, risk management and business continuity arrangements. The provider will collect and report activity, demographic, outcome and service-user experience data in accordance with commissioner requirements and support ongoing evaluation of the service's contribution to reducing mental health inequalities and improving outcomes.

The service aims to improve psychological wellbeing, reduce the impact of trauma and emotional distress, increase engagement with therapeutic support amongst underserved communities, improve service-user experience, reduce inequalities in access to mental health care and contribute to a more culturally responsive and inclusive local mental health system.

The contract value is £150,000 for a period of 18-months. The process being followed is a Most Suitable Provider Process under the Provider Selection Regime 2023.

Role and Responsibilities of the provider:

The service provider's role is to lead and coordinate the service, and they will be responsible for:

A. Overall

The provider will lead and coordinate the delivery, governance and ongoing development of the Intercultural Therapeutic Service (ITS) across Lewisham, ensuring the service operates as a safe, effective, evidence-based and culturally responsive therapeutic offer that addresses mental health inequalities and improves access to psychological support for underserved communities.

The provider will maintain appropriate clinical leadership, workforce capacity, supervision, training and operational management arrangements to ensure the service can safely and effectively deliver the contract requirements.

The provider will deliver a specialist ITS model that is:

•trauma-informed;

•racially aware and anti-oppressive;

•culturally responsive;

•psychologically informed;

•underpinned by robust clinical governance and supervision arrangements;

• responsive to the diverse needs of Lewisham residents.

The provider will undertake assessment, formulation, therapeutic intervention, risk management, safeguarding and onward referral activities as appropriate to the needs of service users, ensuring interventions are delivered within agreed clinical governance frameworks.

The provider will maintain a robust clinical supervision model, including individual and group supervision, reflective practice and professional development arrangements that support safe, effective and high-quality delivery. Particular emphasis will be placed on supporting practitioners working with trauma, racial trauma, migration experiences, exclusion, discrimination and other complex psychosocial factors affecting mental health and wellbeing.

The provider will establish and maintain effective referral pathways and collaborative…