Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children & Young People (UASC) Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Support Service (Kent & Medway) - Market Engagement

Within Kent and Medway, there is a cohort of UASC who need emotional wellbeing and mental health support and therapy, that cannot currently access all aspects of the help they need at the time they need it. There are gaps in the range of services provided for emotional wellbeing and mental health support and therapy for this very vulnerable group of young people in Kent and Medway.

The aim of the proposed service will be to provide a timely, effective, evidence-based range of support, therapeutic interventions and psychoeducational support. This will be delivered within group, individual and activity-based formats and web based resources in order to deliver emotional wellbeing support and lower level psychological interventions to UASC aged under 21 years old at the point of their referral. The decision as to which intervention is provided and how this is provided (for example: virtual or face-to-face) will be based on the outcome of a clinical assessment and the needs of the child/ young person.

The service will need to be well-connected to the young people's communities, in particular the reception centres where the majority of male UASC aged 16 and 17, reside prior to moving into the community. In addition to direct intervention with the young people and web based support the service will provide training and support to professionals in awareness and the identification of UASC needs to understand and work effectively in a culturally competent way.

The local defined outcomes of the service will be as follows:

• Achieving the activity targets and timeframes both set in the service specification and developed and agreed in partnership with the provider
• Enhancing the quality of life and improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of the UASC, creatively utilising evidence-based interventions (support and therapy) delivered by suitably qualified and supervised professionals
• Interventions will be delivered in a safe environment and protecting the young people from avoidable harm
• Reporting will use agreed outcome measures to evidence the efficacy of the service via a regular cycle of review, monitoring and evaluation
• Raising the level of awareness of the needs of UASC and providing evidence-based training for professionals working with UASC to raise awareness, standards and good practice
• Ensuring the voice of the service user is used in the development of the service, including linking to the Service for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (SUASC) Apprentice posts, to enhance participation and improve outcomes.

A copy of the draft service specification has been made available and can be accessed via the eProcurement system. Additional information: The commissioner does not bind itself to commencing or running any public procurement procedure further to, or as a result of, this market engagement. Any subsequent procurement will be commenced by way of a separate call for competition via notices published in Find a Tender and Contracts Finder.

Any and all information/documents that are made available to the market as part of this engagement exercise is draft and subject to change.