Somerset CCG - Social Prescribing Link Worker Services

Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (SCCG) will be formalising their Social Prescribing Model which included the provision of Health Coaches and Social Prescribing Link Workers across the whole county.

SCCG and the Somerset Primary Care Networks (PCNs) have agreed to jointly fund the model and ensure an equitable baseline level of these roles is available across all PCN Areas.

SCCG with the agreement of Primary Care Committee created a county wide specification and undertook a process with nominated local providers. It was deemed that this approach was considered to be both in the public interest and in the interest of the local system because the SPLW services are only effective when they have acquired extensive local knowledge, developed high levels of trust with community groups and strong and high trust relationships with other local health and care teams. The contract term is 3 years with the possible extension of any period up to a further 2 years at the discretion of the Commissioner.

The commissioner believes that that the current providers are the only providers capable of meeting their needs in each of the locality and are best placed to continue to build upon work already done with existing health, social care, Council and local community providers.

The Services are healthcare services within the meaning and scope of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Commissioner has voluntarily advertised this notice of intention to award this contract to reach as wide an audience as possible and to promote transparency and in line with regulation 32(2)(b)(ii). The Commissioner is firmly of the view that competition is absent for technical reasons, that the organisations listed above are the only provider capable of meeting the CCG's needs within specific localities for the reasons detailed above.

Additional information: Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group (SCCG) is looking to formalise a Social Prescribing Model which included the provision of Health Coaches and Social Prescribing Link Workers across the whole county.

SCCG and the Somerset Primary Care Networks (PCNs) have agreed to jointly fund the model and ensure an equitable baseline level of these roles is available across all PCN Areas.

Social Prescribing Link Workers (SPLW) have been recognised both at a national and local level as an important group of staff that connect people and resources in a local community. SPLW's achieve this through the adoption of a strength-based, solution-focused approach. These approaches allow SPLW's to help people resolve the wide range of non-medical issues that so commonly affect people's health and wellbeing.

The context and history of hosting SPLWs or similar roles in Somerset is different to that of Health Coaches in that a wider number of local partner organisations have been involved. Some of these arrangements have taken a long time to establish, have been working well and would be in the public interest to continue, particularly in a Covid/post-Covid era. SPLWs and Health Coaches will positively contribute to multiagency team working in each PCN area.

As such SCCG with the agreement of Primary Care Committee created a county wide specification and undertook a process with nominated local providers. It was deemed that this approach was considered to be both in the public interest and in the interest of the local system because the SPLW services are only effective when they have acquired extensive local knowledge, developed high levels of trust with community groups and strong and high trust relationships with other local health and care teams. The process involved asking each PCN for their view of any local organisations with the right experience, relationships and history of collaborative working with them. This organisation was then invited to a process to test out their ability to deliver services over a 3 year contract period with the possible extension of any period up to a further 2 years at the discretion of the Commissioner.

The outcome of the process is that 3 contracts will be awarded for the PCN areas of:

[Community Council for Somerset] Bridgwater, North Sedgemoor, Taunton Central, Taunton Deane, Tone Valley and West Somerset, [Health Connections Mendip] Mendip, West Mendip and Frome and

[Rural Practice Network] South Somerset East PCN.

The commissioner believes that that the current providers are the only providers capable of meeting their needs in each of the locality and are best placed to continue to build upon work already done with existing health, social care, Council and local community providers.

The Services are healthcare services within the meaning and scope of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Commissioner has voluntarily advertised this notice of