Individual Placement and Support for Serious Mental Illness (IPS for SMI) 2025 - Essex

Essex County Council as lead commissioner is seeking to procure a service for Individual Placement and Support for Serious Mental Illness (IPS for SMI). The IPS for SMI is an employment support service integrated with secondary care mental health services to assist people who experience severe mental health conditions to find paid work. ECC is the lead commissioner for this service on behalf of the three ICBs in Essex, namely Mid and South Essex (MSE), Hertfordshire and West Essex (HWE ), and Suffolk and North East Essex (SNEE). Please note that this service will not cover Hertfordshire or Suffolk. For the purposes of this procurement, this service is an ALL Essex service, which includes the Unitary Authorities of Southend and Thurrock.

The contract will have an initial term of 3 years (36 months), with an option to extend for a period of no more than 2 years (24 months) at the discretion of the commissioners.

The contract value for a potential 5 year duration is capped at £1,372,433 per annum or £6,862,165 for 5 years. The service is expected to deliver IPS access to 1530 unemployed people aged 18 or over, each contract year.

It should be noted that additional funding relating to the possible expansion of the service ( i.e an increase to annual access targets for unemployed people) may be available to the Council's NHS partners throughout the Contract Term, subject to the delivery of baseline targets and related performance. The published contract value takes this into account. Further details can be found in the procurement documentation.

Additional information:

This service is a priority for Essex requiring good partnership working with the local NHS Foundation Trust, Commissioners and other local community based services. Bidders should ensure that they are familiar with the IPS for SMI programme and assess their respective capacity and capability to provide an All Essex service