Community Connector Roles within the Mental Health Integrated Community Service (MHICS) Teams in East Berkshire

Frimley Health and Care ICB (the Commissioner) sought to commission Community Connector roles within the MHICS Teams across East Berkshire. Adverts were placed on Contracts Finder and the Find a Tender Service and an Invitation to Tender (ITT) process, based on the Open procedure, was undertaken during summer / autumn 2022 to identify the Most Economically Advantageous Tender and therefore determine the incoming provider.

In 2019, the ICB was successfully awarded funding to be one of 12 national early implementer sites to deliver Community Mental Health (CMH) transformation. This has enabled the design and implementation of integrated primary and community mental health care for adults and older adults with Significant Mental Illness (SMI), built around Primary Care Networks (PCNs), so that more patients with SMI are effectively supported in primary care.

As part of the ICS-wide CMH transformation programme, there will be a total of 9 MHICS Teams, covering the 10 PCNs across East Berkshire. MHICS offers a service to patients in primary care with significant mental health difficulties who have not met the criteria for, or whose needs are not met by existing primary and secondary care mental health services. Flow into the MHICS service is mainly from primary care, but also for patients stepping down from secondary care and will continue to evolve as part of the One Team approach as the programme continues to transform the way people with mental health needs are supported in their communities.

The Community Connectors will form part of the core MHICS team (minimum 1 WTE Community Connector per team).

This procurement has been carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioners.

The project reference number for this opportunity is C87115, (previously WA12808).