UASC Mental Health Project

Tender description

This PIN is to announce The Kent & Medway Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCGs) intention to procure a mental health service for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) in Kent. To assist in specification development and test the market size, a market engagement event will be held on 26 Feb 2021 Email expressions of interest to Email address Ciccommissioning@kent.gov.uk with subject UASC Mental Health Tender EOI. Following the market engagement event to discuss the CCGs intentions for the service and develop the specification, a contract notice of competition will be published. We are expecting to award the contract to the successful provider by September 2021. Service Description The aim of the proposed service will be to provide a timely, effective, evidence-based range of therapeutic interventions and psychoeducational support in both group and individual formats to deliver emotional wellbeing and mental health support to UASC aged under 18 years old at the point of referral. Individual sessions will be between eight and 12 sessions, groups will be available to young people in their local area. The service will need to be well connected to the young people’s communities. In addition to the direct interventions provided to the young people the service will provide training and support to professionals to help them in awareness and identification of need and understanding and working effectively with this group. The service will be creative and flexible in how it delivers support which will be provided in community and reception centre settings as well as utilising digital platforms when direct face to face work is not possible due to Covid 19 restrictions and the mobile nature of the client group e.g. a course of therapy could be completed virtually if there is a move out of area. This will be an evolving service and there will be flexibility for cooperative work with the chosen provider to design and implement creative approaches to deliver the service. Achieving the activity targets and timeframes set in the service specification and agreed with the provider Enhancing the quality of life, emotional wellbeing and mental health of the UASC creatively utilising evidence-based interventions delivered by suitably qualified and supervised professionals Interventions will be delivered in a safe environment and protecting the young people from avoidable harm Reporting will use agreed outcome measures to evidence the efficacy of the service via a regular cycle of review, monitoring and evaluation Raising the level of awareness of the needs of UASC and providing evidence-based training for professionals working with UASC to raise standards Ensuring the voice of the service user is used in the development of the service, to enhance participation and improve outcomes Ensuring a clear distinction between Kent LA UASC and Medway LA UASC to allow for separate and joint reporting throughout the project Further information about the opportunity can be found via contacting Hazel South. Lot 1: To be confirmed.