Independent Mental Health Personal Health Budget Coordination

Concepts

• health and social work
• mental health recovery personal health budget
• mental health provision
• mental health service users
• mental health phbs
• independent mental health personal health budget coordination
• ccg
• hackney ccg
• recipient of any phb funding
• hackney

Location

Description

In June 2019 City and Hackney CCG commenced a pilot for a Mental Health Recovery Personal Health Budget (PHB) Service where an organisation that was independent of other mental health provision in the area was asked to coordinate service used mental health PHBs. The initial conclusions of the pilot is that the service should be commissioned on a permanent basis in the area. The CCG believes that no market exists for this service and so is publishing this notice to confirm the CCG intention to award a substantive contract for a permanent service to The Advocacy Project. It is a requirement for the service provider to, not in any way, be a recipient of any PHB funding and for there to be no possibility that any service user could choose to spend any of their PHB with the service provider. It would be impossible for the service provider to oversee the distribution of PHB funds, to advise mental health service users on how to use their PHB, and at all times remain independent if the service provider was in any way connected to any of the organisations that would deliver services in exchange for PHB funding. The estimated value of the service contract £148,254 per annum and the contract will be awarded for a three year period. Any organisation or individual that would like to engage with the CCG to express an interest or engage with the commissioning planning process must do so using the form attached to this notice and return the fully completed form by midday on 19th November 2021.

CPV Codes

• 85000000 - Health and social work services

Indicators

• Contract is suitable for SMEs.
• Contract is suitable for VCOs.

Other Information

The pilot of the service started in 1st of June 2019 when The Advocacy Project (TAP) was awarded a 1 year term contract. In 2020, following an evaluation of the first year of the pilot, an additional one year contract was awarded to TAP for the delivery of the second year of the pilot. TAP were selected to run the pilot services because they do not present a conflict of interest when offering patients personal health budgets. TAP do not provide any services commissioned by personal health budgets and so are free to impartially advise patients on how the funding is spent. Other organisations were found to be in conflict because they might gain financially from the patient's choices. When the original pilot service specification was created 7 criteria for the PHB brokerage provider were defined as: 1. Able to understand the needs of and provide support to individuals with an SMI who are in recovery following a period of treatment 2. Able to provide support and advice independent of the clinical model of treatment 3. To provide impartial advice regarding services and support that can be purchased within the borough 4. Able to record required PHB details, including ReCOL10 scores, within a database system for PHB evaluation. 5. Relationships and engagement with clinicians across a range of secondary mental health settings 6. A service and organisational ethos championing the user's voice and empowering them to make decisions 7. Set up to provide support to people with a range of health needs including a learning disability and physical health conditions. The contract provides administration, co-ordinators and advocates to deliver a target of 400 personal health budgets per annum (increased from 200 in 2019/20). This work is done in partnership with ELFT, C&H Primary Care Networks and also other voluntary organisations such as Core Sport and Mind. The contract is to co-ordinate Mental Health Personal Health Budgets (PHB) and to advocate for patient choice within the pathway. The services delivered by The Advocacy Project are not clinical but, as the outcome measures show, they make a significant difference to patient's mental wellbeing. In addition TAP work in partnership with ELFT who hold the clinical governance on personal health budgets. Before the commencement of the pilot an options appraisal was undertaken to review capacity of known providers, experience and ability to deliver the service and manage conflicts of interest. Conflict of interest deemed to be a critical success factor in that an organisation that was responsible for advocating for a PHB service should not financially gain and so the organisation must not also a provider of the service. https://www.advocacyproject.org.uk/phb/ Any organisation or individual that would like to engage with the CCG to express an interest or engage with the commissioning planning process must do so using this form attached here and return the fully completed form by midday on 19th November 2021 NEL CCG Expression of Interest Form PHB Advocacy Posted.docx