Health and social work services

Tender description

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is an evidence based model of employment support for people with mental health problems. Tower Hamlets CCG and Mental Health and Employment Partnership have jointly commissioned IPS services in Tower Hamlets since April 2016 and are now in need of a new IPS contract from April 2020 after the current contract ends. Over 4 years this service will deliver support to over 1 000 individuals, with high fidelity to the principles of Individual Placement and Support (IPS), an evidence-based model promoted by the Centre for Mental Health in the UK. The overall aim of this service is to support people with severe mental illness to achieve paid, competitive employment in a fulfilling, sustainable way. Through this, we aim to support adults in Tower Hamlets to: — recover more rapidly and effectively from their mental illness, — build social connections and support networks, — gain financial independence, — improve their general health and wellbeing. The overall vision for this service is to enable people with mental health problems to be able to enjoy a good quality of life, reduce health inequalities, remain independent and in control, be included as members of society and, most importantly, realise their potential for recovery. Even where individuals do not succeed in achieving a job outcome, the service aims to develop a recovery focus that will enable service users to engage more actively in their communities and achieve improved wellbeing in other ways. Service objectives — to provide employment advice to care coordinators, employers and other interested stakeholders, — to challenge low expectations and stigma relating to mental health, and raise awareness about employability of people with long term mental health problems, — to provide directly or through partner agencies careers advice and accurate benefits advice to enable people to make informed decisions about taking up and keeping employment, — to act as a key link or ‘bridge’ between mental health services and employers, — to promote in appropriate cases the take up of personal budgets to purchase further care and support relating to employment and recovery goals. The service will deploy a minimum of 6 employment specialists (ES’s) into community mental health teams and other secondary mental health services including one ES allocated to early intervention services and 2 ES’s allocated to the Tower Hamlets Enhanced Primary Care Service. The ES’s will provide employment support with high fidelity to the principles of Individual Placement and Support (IPS). IPS is a replicable, evidence-based, supported employment programme that has been shown to deliver superior employment and health outcomes for people with severe mental health problems. The IPS approach is based on 8 key principles: (a) it aims to get people into competitive employment; (b) it is open to all those who want to work; (c) it tries to find jobs consistent with people's preferences; (d) it works quickly; (e) it brings employment specialists into clinical teams; (f) employment specialists develop relationships with employers based upon a person's work preferences; (g) it provides time unlimited, individualised support for the person and their employer; (h) benefits counselling is included. There is a requirement for the local provider to become part of the centre for mental health’s centres of excellence programme over the course of the contract. The contract value is up to 2 040 000 GBP inclusive VAT over a 5 year contract term, consisting of an initial 4 years + a possible further 1 year. (4 + 1 years). Full details of the requirement can be found in the specification.