Section one: Contracting authority
one.1) Name and addresses
Blenheim House
Blenheim House, Duncombe Street
Leeds
LS1 4PL
Contact
Commercial Team
Country
United Kingdom
Region code
UKI44 - Lewisham and Southwark
Internet address(es)
Main address
Buyer's address
one.4) Type of the contracting authority
Body governed by public law
one.5) Main activity
Education
Section two: Object
two.1) Scope of the procurement
two.1.1) Title
CYP Mental Health Inpatient and Community Pathway Training
two.1.2) Main CPV code
- 80000000 - Education and training services
two.1.3) Type of contract
Services
two.1.4) Short description
CYP MH Inpatient and Community Pathway
Training
Youth Intensive Psychological Practitioner (new role)
two.1.6) Information about lots
This contract is divided into lots: No
two.1.7) Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
Value excluding VAT: £827,600
two.2) Description
two.2.3) Place of performance
NUTS codes
- UK - United Kingdom
two.2.4) Description of the procurement
The expansion of the children and young people’s mental health (CYP MH) workforce is delivered through a partnership involving NHS England & Improvement (NHSE/I), Health Education England (HEE), service commissioners and providers of NHS funded care and aligned to a number of key drivers which include:
• The Five Year Forward View (2016 – 2021)
• Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision: a Green Paper (2018)
• The NHS Long Term Plan (2019 – 2024)
• COVID-19 and recovery
• National Quality Improvement Taskforce for children and young people’s mental health inpatient services
The new Quality Improvement Taskforce for Children and Young People’s inpatient mental health services was announced in Oct 2019. The overarching aim of the Taskforce is to support improvements in the quality of CYP MH inpatient care to ensure services deliver safe, high-quality care that is timely, treatment-focused and outcomes based.
Further workforce growth for the CYP MH workforce will support the commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan to improve access to mental health services for an additional 345,000 children and young people by 2023/24.
NHS Benchmarking data from 2019 and 2020 highlighted that the mean CYP MH inpatient Length of Stay (LOS) in England is 67 days which continues to be at the higher end of the international range of benchmarking than the international mean value of 46 days. This results in a CYP General Adolescent Unit (GAU) admission which is twice as long as an acute adult mental health admission.
2020 data shows vacancy rates across all staff routes for CYP MH inpatient settings at 19% compared with 11% in community CYP MH services. Staffing costs are therefore impacted by increasing agency and bank staff costs across the inpatient pathway.
Whilst it is acknowledged that reduced reliance on agency, temporary, locum and bank staff will have a positive financial impact, more importantly there are other positive benefits associated with reduced reliance on temporary staffing. This includes a more stable and experienced workforce that can receive better supervision, ongoing lifelong professional development, improved staff morale and local connections and relationships can be forged to enable them to provide better care to children and young people.
Whilst there are a number of existing low-intensity psychological roles in the healthcare system, these staff do not have the specific psychological / mental health training to actively support some of the psychological interventions required for this specific cohort of CYP.
The training will ensure practitioners have the skills and knowledge to support the delivery of safe and effective care to young people who can be severely unwell and often have complex needs. This initiative will also contribute to reduced admissions and length of stay and reduce overall staff vacancy rates across the inpatient pathway.
The training will include support for supervisors of the new role, who will also be expected to make a transformation contribution in developing and establishing the role.
It is recognised that there are a number of existing education providers currently delivering training across a range of CYP MH and CYP IAPT pathways. This specification focuses on new training to be commissioned as part of a CYP MH Inpatient and Community Pathway New Role pilot.
A new national curriculum has been developed and it is expected that the new training will be aligned to the CYP MH Inpatient pathway training curriculum (which can be seen at Appendix 1) together with the Competence Framework for Staff Working in Children and Young People’s Inpatient Mental Health Services which builds on the UCL Competence Framework for Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services.
two.2.5) Award criteria
Price
two.2.11) Information about options
Options: No
two.2.13) Information about European Union Funds
The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No
Section four. Procedure
four.1) Description
four.1.1) Type of procedure
Open procedure
four.1.8) Information about the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)
The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes
four.2) Administrative information
four.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure
Notice number: 2021/S 000-023190
Section five. Award of contract
A contract/lot is awarded: Yes
five.2) Award of contract
five.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract
25 August 2022
five.2.2) Information about tenders
Number of tenders received: 3
The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No
five.2.3) Name and address of the contractor
University of Exeter
Northcote House, the Queen’s Drive,
Exeter, Devon
EX4 4QJ
Country
United Kingdom
NUTS code
- UK - United Kingdom
The contractor is an SME
No
five.2.4) Information on value of contract/lot (excluding VAT)
Initial estimated total value of the contract/lot: £827,600
Lowest offer: £827,600 / Highest offer: £827,600 taken into consideration
Section six. Complementary information
six.4) Procedures for review
six.4.1) Review body
The High Court
Strand
London
WC2A 2LL
generaloffice@administrativecourtoffice.justice.gov.uk
Country
United Kingdom
Internet address
https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals
six.4.2) Body responsible for mediation procedures
Blenheim House
Blenheim House, Duncombe Street
Leeds
LS1 4PL
Country
United Kingdom