Invitation to Quote - 'Better Off In Work' Checks, Benefits Advocacy, Debt Advice and Support Service for People in contact with Secondary Mental Health Services in Shropshire And Telford & Wrekin

Tender description

As part of the NHS England continued funding of Individual Placement Support Services (IPS) for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, Shropshire Council is commissioning a benefits, advocacy, debt advice and support service. NHS England is currently investing in the world's largest scale-up of IPS Services. The Long Term Plan commits to expanding access to IPS nationally to 115,000 people by 2029. It aims to support the expansion of IPS services so that more people who experience serious mental illness (SMI) can find and retain employment. Rates of employment are lower for people with mental health problems than for any other group of health conditions. IPS is an evidence-based approach to providing employment support for people experiencing serious mental health problems, shown to be twice as effective as vocational rehabilitation, and associated with reduced utilisation of other services, including use of inpatient admissions. IPS is based on eight principles, with increased fidelity to these principles correlated to better outcomes for service users. Enable have received confirmation of continued funding for Apr 2022 to Mar 2023 to continue to provide an IPS service across the area. Enable has provided a mental health employment service since 1994, and in 2009 became an IPS Centre of Excellence after it became the first service in the UK to be Fidelity Reviewed (the quality of IPS services are scored through independent review, called a Fidelity Review). Since then, in addition to the existing service for Shropshire's secondary mental health care, it has provided: • IPS services in Telford (ended due to budget reductions by Telford and Wrekin CCG), • IPS based services for IAPT in Shropshire and Telford, • Mentally ill Veterans • Mentally ill offenders (3 year project in conjunction with Centre for Mental Health) • Between 20012 and 2014, it obtained regional health funding to train and mentor eight secondary mental health employment teams via the Improve Project to become IPS services. Five of those services went on to become IPS Centres of Excellence. • Enable trains mental health and other employment workers in IPS and employer engagement. Within the funding for the IPS Service across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin there is provision for an element of 'better off in work' benefit checks, advocacy and support for patients receiving the IPS service ("Service Users"). This portion of the funding allocation will be £20,000 per annum for Shropshire and £10,000 for Telford & Wrekin (for a maximum of 1 year).