Review of Neurodevelopmental Services

Tender description

The Client wishes to commission a review of the demand, capacity and design of Neurodevelopmental (ND) services for children, young people and adults in Wales. It will consider children’s ND services, the Integrated Autism Service, and other autism and ND services delivered by health boards, local authorities and third sector organisations. This review will help develop recommendations and evidence-informed options for improvements to services. Although the review was prompted by developments in autism policy, it will also consider the needs of people with other neurodevelopmental conditions, such as ADHD. The initial requirement will involve a combination of desk-based evidence synthesis and primary qualitative and/or quantitative research, which will lead to recommendations for improvements to services. In summary, this will include: • An assessment of the demand, capacity and design of ND services for children, young people and adults across the seven local health boards, identifying issues, bottlenecks, constraints and gaps that are impacting on the ability to deliver timely and high-quality services • To consider the feasibility, as well as potential advantages and disadvantages, of alternative structures and models of service delivery, including a holistic all-age, pan-Neurodevelopmental Conditions model • To consider the current and potential future impact of the following on capacity of ND services: wider autism/ND services such as those provided by CAMHS, local authorities, and national and local third sector services; autism/ND services provided through non-devolved functions such as the criminal justice system and welfare support services; third sector grant scheme projects currently funded by the Welsh Government between April 2020 and March 2023; and initiatives such as the Do-It profiler pilot • To develop recommendations/options for improvements to services to address current demand, capacity and design issues, and any gaps in provision An additional requirement (potential contract extension), if a decision were made to proceed, would involve developing options for a national service model in further detail. In summary, this will include: • To facilitate a working group to identify feasible and sustainable options for improvement to children and adults’ ND services, taking into account all the evidence generated as part of the review • To develop two proposals for a national ND service model that would improve and maximise the timeliness and quality of services – one which could be achieved within the existing budget and another which could be achieved with an increased budget. • To develop a workforce strategy to support proposals for future ND services Bidders will be asked to set out their approach to both the initial and additional requirements in their proposals. Final output The key output from this tender is a final report drawing together all elements of the work and addressing all the project objectives. It should detail the research, corresponding findings and recommendations from the initial requirement; outline the work undertaken for the additional requirement and how this was informed by the initial requirement; and present the two options developed for future ND services. Please register your interest to tender for this opportunity via the Speculative Notice.