Health and social work services

Tender description

The London Borough Of Merton has been working with the London Boroughs of Merton, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth (The Pan-London FDAC Partnership) to develop a FDAC service to prevent children and young people entering the care system. The purpose of this specification is to outline the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) service required across the Pan-London partnership. The service aims to achieve better outcomes for vulnerable children at risk from harm caused by parental substance misuse, domestic violence and/or mental health. The service will run for an initial 24 months contract period, with two possible 12 months extensions. Detailed specification is included in the tender documents. This is a partnership agreement with other listed boroughs namely; London Boroughs of Merton, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth. The London Borough of Merton is the lead procurer on behalf of all other listed Boroughs in this partnership agreement. Membership to the partnership will be opened to other local authorities subject to the agreement of existing partnership members. Further details can be found in the tender document via Merton's procurement tool (as the lead procurer) — the London Tenders Portal. This service will be available to the families from the London Boroughs of Merton, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Kingston, Lambeth, Richmond, Southwark, Sutton and Wandsworth where there is substance misuse, and also where substance misuse is present in conjunction with mental health issues and or domestic violence, which is impacting on the welfare of the child. In most cases the referral into the FDAC team will occur at the first hearing in the care proceedings. When the proceedings are issued, the case will be identified by the local authority as a case involving drug or alcohol misuse and will be listed to appear before the specialist FDAC Judge. The parent will be given the choice at that point of entering the programme. The Judge will explain to the parent what that involves and the team will meet the parent for the first time. The parent will also have the opportunity to talk to a parent mentor. The FDAC team will consider excluding parents in the following circumstances: — Where there is a history of severe physical or sexual abuse of the children; — Where there is a history of severe domestic or other violence, where help has been offered in the past and not accepted; — Where the parent is experiencing florid psychosis. It will also be necessary for the team to take account of the wishes and feelings of older children and young people. This project is a new type of intervention so that the fact that the prognosis is poor should not of itself lead to exclusion, however in instances where there are serious risks to a child which are likely to exist even if the substance misuse was not an issue, then families may not be eligible i.e. if it is indicated that even if the substance misuse issues were dealt with, the children would not be safe from harm. The service will adhere to the following principles of care: — Service users have the right to dignity, privacy and independence; — Respect for the service user and his or her way of life; — Maintaining a confidential service; — Involving service users in decisions relating to the service. The service will deliver a flexible bespoke multidisciplinary support service. The service will support treatment regimens for parents and this will involve coordinating a range of services so that the families' needs, concerns and strengths are all taken into account with everyone working towards the best possible outcomes for the children.