Mental Health Employment Support service - NHS North Central London ICB

North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL ICB) are proposing to procure two new Mental Health Employment Support services for the sector.

Contract 1: Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for people with severe mental illness.

Contract 2: Employment Advisors in the NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression programme.

We are considering a possible third service element comprising of employment support interventions for any adult in NCL with a mental health diagnosis.

To assist the ICB with testing its assumptions around the proposed two services, this Market Engagement Questionnaire (MEQ) has been published to explore the market's feedback on the following areas:

1.Outline of services' requirements

2.Timescales for procurement and mobilisation of the new contracts

3.Proposed contracts' duration

Background

The NCL Mental Health Employment Support services would cover four of the five boroughs of North Central London (Barnet, Enfield, Haringey and Islington). Camden are not included as they have completed a separate procurement for 2025/26 to 2026/27.

Aims

The aims of the services are to:

Empower residents with mental illness, particularly those who face the most disadvantage, to secure and retain good quality jobs that are well paid, or engage in other vocational activities

Deliver coordinated mental health employment support referral and delivery models across NCL

Improve access, efficiency, and equity of employment support whilst reducing unwarranted variation and driving cost-efficiency

Ensure residents receive a high quality and tailored intervention

Standardize referral management and other pathways across the boroughs

Improve data collection, system intelligence and reporting

Identify opportunities further develop and improve the employment support offer, through collaboration and integration

Contract Details

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for people with severe mental illness

The indicative annual contract value will range from £2m (year 1 - FY2627) - £2.4m (year 3- FY2829) over the three years of the contract period. The range reflects increased access targets over the 3 years.

Expected IPS SMI access targets. These are subject to change following confirmation from NHSE.

2026/27

Barnet - 359

Enfield - 313

Haringey - 331

Islington - 307

Total - 1,310

2027/28

Barnet - 396

Enfield - 345

Haringey - 366

Islington - 339

Total - 1,446

2028/29

Barnet - 416

Enfield - 363

Haringey - 384

Islington - 356

Total - 1,519

Employment Advisors in the NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression programme.

The DWP have not confirmed funding for future years and therefore it is not possible to provide an indicative contract value or anticipated targets currently. For information, DWP funding for 2024/25 was £800k.

Delivery locations of both contracts: North Central London (Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Islington)

The contracts will have an initial term of three years (36 months), with an option to extend for up to two additional years, in increments of one year (12 months each), at the discretion of the commissioner. If all available extension is taken up in full the contract will have a maximum duration of 5 years (60 months).

Market Engagement & Next Steps

Interested organisations are asked to submit responses to the questionnaire using the Microsoft Forms link below:

https://forms.office.com/e/VSu0bZx6pf

Please complete the MEQ by 12:00 noon on Tuesday 1st April 2025.

If you have any queries about this document, please contact Helena Quinn, Integration, Transformation & Delivery Lead - Live Well (Camden) via email Helena.Quinn@nhs.net

NCL ICB will host a market engagement meeting via Microsoft Teams for providers interested in bidding for these contracts. The meeting will take place on Tuesday 15th April 2025, 10am- 12pm. Details on how to access this event will be provided via Outlook email.

This Market Engagement process is being managed by the Procurement and Contracting Hub (hosted by NHS North East London) on behalf of NHS North Central London in connection with a process under Regulation 75 of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations" (as amended)). The services to which this Procurement relates fall within