Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2020-09-11
Buyer: NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group
Country: UK
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 85100000: Health services
Estimated value: 795260 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: This is a voluntary ex ante transparency notice and is intended to provide notice of NHS Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS Southend Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group, and NHS Castle Point and Rochford Clinical Commissioning Group's (‘the CCG's’) intention to award a 12 month contract for the provision of Mental Health Support Teams in Mid and South Essex.
This is a voluntary ex ante transparency notice and is intended to provide notice of the CCG's intention to award a 12 month contract (1 January 2022 — 30 December 2023) to existing CYP MH Service Provider (NELFT) for the provision of Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) in Mid and South Essex.
Mental Health Support Teams (MHST) are new services designed to support mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in and around schools and colleges. The teams were described in Transforming children and young people's mental health provision: a Green Paper and they are a key element of the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
The delivery timescales mandated by NHSE/I in relation to successfully bidding for and then subsequently implementing wave 4 MHST were ambitious (June 2020 — January 2021), reflecting the importance attached to further roll out of MHST as a key component of the Mental Health offer for children and young people.
Additionally, NHSE/I's 'Delivery Support Pack' for CCG's stated in the operating principles that as part of the funding being awarded, MHSTs should be additional to, and integrated with, existing support. The CCGs were expected in their funding application to reflect how the MHST offer is integrated with the existing local offer. NHSE/I set a clear expectation that a broad coalition of partners spanning a range of education settings, local authorities including public health, the voluntary sector, Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) and local providers collaborate with CCGs in steering and supporting local implementation.
There are significant mobilisation risks, particularly around workforce recruitment and training to secure competent staff at the appropriate levels of seniority to successfully deliver wave 4 of the MHST in Mid and South Essex. All senior roles must be recruited to and in training by January 2021. The scale of work includes; working in partnership with HEE and HEI's to deliver a capable workforce, recruiting staff to teams, supporting staff through training, ensuring the ability to mobilise the appropriate blend of clinical and administrative personnel to deliver MHST, ensuring clear and appropriate local governance of MHSTs, ensuring integration with other elements of the local offer and working in partnership with Regional Implementation Teams (DfE) and the wider education system to ensure education settings are engaged and ready to receive MHSTs and their service.
In light of these risks and the ambitious timescales mandated by NHSE/I, the CCGs deem that the time limits for the open or restricted procedures or competitive with negotiated procedure cannot be complied with. Even if a provider were identified via an accelerated procurement procedure, there would be insufficient time to complete a robust contract mobilisation involving critical mobilisation risks, particularly around workforce recruitment and training, to meet the delivery trajectory. If the CCGs cannot meet this timeline, there is an unacceptable risk that Mid and South Essex STP will be removed as an area from the NHSE/I pilot scheme and funding will be lost, meaning MHST cannot be delivered in Mid and South Essex.
The CCGs decided that the best solution to ensure that children and young people in Mid and South Essex benefit from MHST is to integrate with the CYP MH provider, who is uniquely placed to successfully deliver MHST and its future expansion programme, within the mandated timescales. As such the CCGs propose to award a contract to NELFT for the provision of MHST wave 4, service delivery commencing January 2022 — until 30 December 2023.
In accordance with Regulation 72 (1) (a) of the PCRs 2015, the services covered by the arrangement may change and expand as the Service develops in accordance with national guidelines and mandates in relation to operating principles for the funding applications for MHST.
The delivery timescales mandated by NHSE/I in relation to successfully bidding for and then subsequently implementing wave 4 MHST were ambitious (June 2020 — January 2021), reflecting the importance attached to further roll out of MHST as a key component of the Mental Health offer for children and young people.
Additionally, NHSE/I's 'Delivery Support Pack' for CCG's stated in the operating principles that as part of the funding being awarded, MHSTs should be additional to, and integrated with, existing support. The CCGs were expected in their funding application to reflect how the MHST offer is integrated with the existing local offer. NHSE/I set a clear expectation that a broad coalition of partners spanning a range of education settings, local authorities including public health, the voluntary sector, Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) and local providers collaborate with CCGs in steering and supporting local implementation.
There are significant mobilisation risks, particularly around workforce recruitment and training to secure competent staff at the appropriate levels of seniority to successfully deliver wave 4 of the MHST in Mid and South Essex. All senior roles must be recruited to and in training by January 2021. The scale of work includes; working in partnership with HEE and HEI's to deliver a capable workforce, recruiting staff to teams, supporting staff through training, ensuring the ability to mobilise the appropriate blend of clinical and administrative personnel to deliver MHST, ensuring clear and appropriate local governance of MHSTs, ensuring integration with other elements of the local offer and working in partnership with Regional Implementation Teams (DfE) and the wider education system to ensure education settings are engaged and ready to receive MHSTs and their service.
In light of these risks and the ambitious timescales mandated by NHSE/I, the CCGs deem that the time limits for the open or restricted procedures or competitive with negotiated procedure cannot be complied with. Even if a provider were identified via an accelerated procurement procedure, there would be insufficient time to complete a robust contract mobilisation involving critical mobilisation risks, particularly around workforce recruitment and training, to meet the delivery trajectory. If the CCGs cannot meet this timeline, there is an unacceptable risk that Mid and South Essex STP will be removed as an area from the NHSE/I pilot scheme and funding will be lost, meaning MHST cannot be delivered in Mid and South Essex.
The CCGs decided that the best solution to ensure that children and young people in Mid and South Essex benefit from MHST is to integrate with the CYP MH provider, who is uniquely placed to successfully deliver MHST and its future expansion programme, within the mandated timescales. As such the CCGs propose to award a contract to NELFT for the provision of MHST wave 4, service delivery commencing January 2022 — until 30 December 2023.
The contracting authorities participating in the publication of this VEAT and the award of the contract communicated herein are:


Winner: NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
Award value: 795260