Young People's Online Counselling Services - South East London CCG

This is a Prior Information Notice (PIN). South East London CCG is looking to re-procure its Young People's Online Counselling Provision ahead of the upcoming expiry of its current contract.

The service will be required to deliver an early intervention, easy to access, online, in and out of hours counselling and support service to young people aged 10 up to their 26th birthday; people living, attending school, corporately cared for by the local authority or with GP registration in the boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich.

The Service Provider shall provide:

• a young person friendly, safe and easy to use website which is secure and allows a secure exchange of communication between the service provider and service user.
• active local promotion of service (including marketing materials) to schools and other appropriate community settings to both professionals and young people.
• support to the communication lead with plans to increase engagement with the platform
• a choice of qualified psychotherapists and counsellors to deliver counselling sessions who are trained to address mental health concerns.
• drop in online chats for service users with qualified psychotherapists, counsellors and Emotional Wellbeing Practitioners
• booked 1:1 counselling sessions for service users with qualified psychotherapists and counsellors.
• moderated group chats and themed message forums for service users based on particular themes and issues that affect young people's emotional and mental health.
• joint integrated working with CAMHS to enable step-up access
• regular performance monitoring information that demonstrates the type of concerns children and young people are presenting with and improved outcomes as a result of accessing services
• service administration including an online platform and software licence

The online platform will be accessible 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

The online live text chat counselling function will be available 12 noon to 10pm Monday to Friday and 6pm to 10pm Saturday and Sunday with reduced cover Christmas day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The provider must be British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) accredited.

It is expected that following a procurement process in early 2022, the new contract will run for a period of two years with a further extension option of up to two years (maximum four years in total).

The total value of the contract (over four years) will be £2,200,000, which equates to £550,000 per annum (including irrecoverable VAT).

Additional information: Interested providers must express an interest in the opportunity via the ProContract e-tendering portal. Organisations will need to register an account on ProContract if they are not registered already. This can be done by clicking the below link.

https://procontract.due-north.com/Register

Once registered, you can express an interest in this project and submit the EOI form by clicking the following link to this specific project:

https://procontract.due-north.com/Advert?advertId=2ce05cef-9d61-ec11-8110-005056b64545

A duly completed expression of interest (EOI) form must be submitted via the messaging facility for the above project on ProContract e-tendering portal by the stated deadline. Please note that any EOI submitted by any other means will not be considered.

The deadline for expression of interest is 17:00 on 14 January 2021. Any expressions of interest received after this deadline will not be considered.

Please note that the contract will be awarded without further publication. Interested organisations must express their interest as instructed in this notice if they wish to take part in this procurement process and no further opportunity notice will be published (in line with Regulation 75 (1)(b) of the PCR 2015).

Should only one suitable EOI be received, the CCG reserves the right to undertake a negotiated procedure to award the contract.

Where multiple suitable EOIs are received before the stated deadline from capable providers in response to this PIN, the CCG will publish a procurement opportunity to only those providers who have submitted EOIs in response to this PIN in early 2022.

Any communications or clarification questions about this contract opportunity must submitted be via the messaging facility for this project on ProContract e-tendering portal. The deadline for any clarification questions is 17:00 on 14 January 2021.

The new contract will run for a period of two years with a further extension option of up to two years (maximum four years in total). Should a competitive procurement process be required following this EOI process (i.e two or more EOIs are deemed successful following evaluation), the contract start date will be 01/04/2023. Where only one EOI is received, the awarded contract start date may be sooner.

London Shared Services (previously NELCSU) is managing this process on behalf of NHS South East London CCG (The Authority). The services to which this advert relates fall within Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (the Regulations) and the "Light Touch Regime" (LTR) governing the procurement of Health, Social, Education and Other service contracts. Any subsequent procurement will be a single stage process under the LTR. Neither the use of any term such as "Restricted procedure" or "Procurement", nor any other indication shall be taken to mean that The Authority intends to hold itself bound to any of the Regulations, save those applicable to Schedule 3 services under the Light Touch Regime.