Children and Young People Education Mental Health Practitioner Programme, Health Education England- NHS/SoEPS/19.497

NHS South of England Procurement Services (SoEPS), acting on behalf of Health Education England (the Authority) are commencing a tender for the provision of a Children and Young People Education Mental Health Practitioner Programme.

Health Education England (HEE), in partnership with NHS England by 2020/21, commit to a significant expansion in access to high-quality mental health care for children and young people, with at least 70,000 additional children and young people each year receiving evidence-based treatment.

As part of the initiatives to support expansion there is a commitment to create a network of support for children and young people, and their educational settings (DHSC 2017).

This includes establishing Mental Health Support Teams who will have the responsibility for delivering schools' overarching approach to providing mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people from January 2019.

As part of the Mental Health Support Teams a new role called the Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) is being established.

The implementation of the EMHP role will be underpinned by practitioners undertaking an accredited post graduate/graduate certificate programme of education and supervision in clinical practice.

On successful completion of the programme, the learner will be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and capabilities to work as a qualified EMHP providing early intervention support for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health problems, and signposting to NHS and other appropriate services for further support.

This provision will split over 6 Geographic Lots.

The maximum value of this programme is £15,120,000 inclusive of any applicable VAT over a three year period across all 6 Lots.

The Authority reserves the right to extend the contracts by up to a further two years, to be determined on a Lot basis.

The first year of the programme will be up to £2,520,000 across all 6 Lots (£420,000 each Lot for tuition and supervision).

The funding is set at tuition costs of £11,500, inclusive of any applicable VAT, per learner in respect of the delivery of a postgraduate/graduate certificate completing the programme over a maximum period of 12 months.

The amount of £5,000, inclusive of any applicable VAT, will be available for training each Supervisor, with the expectation that supervisors can support up to two EMHP Trainees (1:2 Supervision trainer ratio).

However, this may be adjusted for future cohorts as the training numbers increase.

Bidders are invited to access the procurement documentation at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/soepscommissioning Please access the ITT procurement documents for further information.