Fast-Track Mental Health Social Work Graduate Programme

The Department of Health and Social Care (the Authority) is seeking the provision of a fast-track programme to select and train high-calibre and ambitious graduates with leadership potential in the field of adult mental health social work.

The purpose is during the two year programme is to:

To recruit and train a minimum of 100 adult mental health social workers (participants) per cohort

Provide mental health placements for a minimum of 100 participants.

Provide access to onwards employment in statutory mental health social work, placing participants into a career in mental health social work

Develop a pipeline of future leaders in mental health social work.

The Authority invites proposals from:

one contractor holding overall liability for all elements of the contract; or clear lead contractors for the key elements of the programme, for example: marketing and branding; performance reporting; managing third-party contractors; etc.

The procurement exercise is to find a provider that could adhere to the following requirements:

The Programme will be restricted to delivery in universities and statutory mental health providers across England.

The Programme will be accessible for participants across England and the Contractor shall have this in mind when organising participant work placements, employment, and facilitating classroom-based learning The Contract will cover the delivery of two cohorts with the option to extend to deliver an additional third cohort.

The Contract will run for up to six financial years (2020-21 to 2025-26), subject to the decision to extend for the third cohort:

Minimum of 100 participants per cohort, with the option to expand this to a minimum of 160 participants per cohort. The expansion is subject to the confirmation of additional funding.

Graduate level entry, generally of 2:1 or higher, with a degree that does not qualify the participant to practice as a Social Worker.

Postgraduate diploma will be approved by Social Work England and both academic qualifications will be funded by the Contractor via the Contract charges and will be delivered with no charge to Participants.

Bursary funding will be available to all Year One participants of each cohort - funding is fixed at £17,200 outside London and £19,100 inside London.

Year One participants will be placed with providers of statutory mental health services in order to gain direct experience of working in NHS and social care settings.

Year Two participants will be employed by providers of statutory mental health services and will be supported by the employer/provider to undertake the ASYE.

Leadership training will be provided alongside the programme to enable participants to develop their personal leadership skills in mental health social work

The full service description will be provided in the procurement documents.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please sign up via the e-tendering system. You will then be provided with the relevant documents