Individual Placement Services for Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry.

Over the last 3 years, the West Midlands Combined Authority have been working with NHS England, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), and the Department of Health (DH) to trial Individual Placement and Support (IPS) services in primary and community care settings. The aim was to test if this model can deliver a transformational improvement in employment, health, and wellbeing outcomes for people out of work with a self-defined long-term health condition or disability.

The trial has successfully been delivered and a national evaluation is due to be published in

the Spring of 2022. IPS services continue to run within the Black Country footprint, however the WMCA are now looking to expand services into Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry.

There will also be a focus on exploring the effectiveness of IPS interventions for specific vulnerable groups including those who are at risk of becoming homeless, have autism or ADHD or are subject to Community Treatment Sentence Requirement.

It is anticipated that the service will run from July 2021 until June 2022 with the possibility of further contract extensions of up to 3 years in 12-month increments (extensions to be granted at the sole discretion of the Commissioner). Bidders should note that the published contract value is for the full extended 4 year contract period. The annual value of this contract is £1,642,965.

The contract will be split into three lots as follows:

Lot 1: Birmingham and Solihull - contract value - £758,291 per annum Lot 2: Coventry - £379,146 per annum

Lot 3: Specialist Support - £505,528 per annum

Lots 1 and 2 are intended to be delivered within Primary and Community Care settings aligning to multi-disciplinary healthcare teams. The core target referral routes are as follows:

• i.Primary care (GPs, practice nurses, other primary care staff members)
• ii.Community care (IAPT, pain clinics, and other community health and care services)
• iii.Self-referral (web, telephone, in-person)

Lot 3 seeks to develop and deliver IPS within Specialist Service Pathways focusing on the following areas:

• i.Homelessness
• ii.Criminal Justice Pathways
• iii.Neuro-Developmental Pathways

Further details can be found in the service specification.