Supported Accommodation for People Recovering from Mental Health

Harrow Council has undertaken a review of Mental Health Services and is now implementing the recommendations, one of which is to increase access for people to move to their own home-by a redesign of the supported accommodation portfolio and pathway to facilitate people achieving more independence. Mental health accommodation services house and support adults with severe and enduring mental ill health who are unable to live in their own home due to lack of skills or inability to live independently. Those entering the services tend to originate from inpatient mental health wards, mental health rehabilitation wards, community rehabilitation units, are in mental health placements outside of the borough, or are experiencing tenancy breakdown in the community. We currently have a range of housing services for people with mental health including in-house services, block contracts and spot purchases to meet high, medium, and low needs. Our New Pathway Our aim is to create an accommodation pathway, characterised by a person centred and strengths based philosophy with quality services that proactively support recovery by working to ensure citizens are equipped with the skills and capacity to live happier, healthier and more independent lives. We are seeking services that are: able to meet the needs of our citizens, capable of meeting the current and future demand, committed to continuous improvement and best practice, have the flexibility to respond to changes elsewhere in the system and the enduring impact of Covid. The accommodation services are arranged as a pathway with levels of support that include: • High: nursing, residential care, supported accommodation with dual diagnosis, autism • Medium: supported accommodation and step down • Low: Floating support Residents move into the level of provision that best meets their needs and move through the pathway as they become more independent, before moving into their own home outside of the pathway. They do not need to access all levels before moving to an independent tenancy. A small number of residents require longer-term support and may not make the transition to independent living, nevertheless efforts are made to maximise independence and support people in the least restrictive environment. However, continuous progression through and out of the pathway is required to create the ongoing capacity needed to accommodate new referrals from hospital, other settings, or out of borough. Our strategy is to consolidate the number of providers, develop greater partnership in our offer to Harrow’s residents and ensure we demonstrate value for money. Using resources effectively to secure quality provision is a key component of our approach. Our procurement strategy is outlined in section II.2.4. Please note that our procurement timetable is provisional and is subject to change. We would like to obtain initial interest from providers who have prior experience of delivering a similar service. To express your interest please send an email to cameron.erskine@harrow.gov.uk, you will then be issued a short questionnaire for you to complete and return to the above-mentioned email address. Once this has been reviewed the project team will contact you for further discussions. Please register your details on to the London Procurement Portal London Tenders Portal to receive further information about the Mental Health Supported Accommodation market engagement event which we will hold in early April.