NHS England South West - Integrated Non-Custodial Healthcare Services

This notice is placed as a Prior Information Notice in order to facilitate engagement with potential providers.

The NHS England (NHSE) Health & Justice team in the South West seeks to determine the level of interest in the provision of non-custodial healthcare services across the South West region. NHSE are in the early stages of engagement and would like to offer potential providers and stakeholders an opportunity to help inform the scope and recommissioning strategy of these services. A series of early market engagement events will be taking place across the region in April and May 2023.

The areas covered within the South West include:

- Avon and Somerset - Swindon and Wiltshire - Gloucestershire - Dorset - Devon and Cornwall

Commissioners are giving consideration to aligning and/or integrating the following non-custodial services: - Liaison and Diversion services - RECONNECT services; (a care after custody service that seeks to improve the continuity of care of vulnerable people leaving prison) - Mental Health Treatment Requirements (MHTRs) - Court Healthcare (aligning an MoJ service through partnerships)

Alignment of regional non-custodial contracts would provide an opportunity to drive an innovative way of working with all stakeholders to deliver an integrated non-custodial healthcare service for each of the five Offices of Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) footprints. It would allow consistency in patient outcomes and quality standards whilst providing the correct pathway to the individual demographic in the South West. The key aims and outcomes include:

- Supporting the delivery of whole-system healthcare for patients in the (non-custodial) Criminal Justice System - Aligning healthcare services to deliver a joined-up pathway in its entirety - Ensuring that non-custodial healthcare is commissioned in a way that supports continuous improvement and innovation - Driving self-management and ownership of health to help individuals develop the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to make the best decisions and actions for themselves - Ensuring effective stakeholder networks and engagement to capture all views from service users, including OPPCs, Probation, community providers, local authorities, ICB networks - Recommissioning across pathways (e.g. mental health treatment requirements; RECONNECT) to deliver seamless care from custody diversion through to release back into the community - Reducing reoffending at a regional level, ensuring continuity of care - Consistency in range, quality, accessibility and acceptability with that available to the wider community, in order to achieve equitable health outcomes and to reduce health inequalities between people in the criminal justice system and in the wider community

It is anticipated that new services will commence 01 April 2025.

Additional information: At this stage, the Commissioner wishes to engage with providers who currently deliver, or might have an interest in delivering, non-custodial healthcare services, to seek their views on the commissioning intentions.

Market engagement events will be held in person on the below dates. Each event will follow the same format and therefore an organisation need only attend one event. Five events are being held, solely to enable greater coverage and accessibility.

• 20th April - Bournemouth • 25th April - Exeter • 26th April - Swindon • 16th May - Bristol • 18th May - Gloucester

Further information about the events and venue details will be shared with those who register.

To register your interest in attending one of the market engagement events, please complete the attached Market Engagement Questionnaire and return via the eProcurement system, Atamis.

Interested providers will be able to view this opportunity via the live opportunities list on the 'Health Family' e-procurement system, Atamis. Click on 'View our Live Opportunities' from the home page, available on the following link: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome.

Once you have found the opportunity (via the search function, using the title or reference number), to gain full access to the market engagement questionnaire you will need to click on 'Register interest' - this will take you to the log-in page.

If you are not already registered on the system, you will need to do so before gaining full access and to be able to submit your market engagement questionnaire. Please return the questionnaire using the correspondence function within Atamis.

This notice is an information gathering exercise rather than a call for competition in its own right, and therefore publication or response does not commit commissioners or respondents to a future procurement, nor provide any process exemptions or preferential treatment to any parties expressing an interest.

Commissioners will not be liable for costs incurred by any interested party in participating in this exercise. Interested parties should note that a response to this notice does not guarantee an automatic invitation to any subsequent formal procurement, which the commissioners will consider in the future.

The services are healthcare services falling within Schedule 3 to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations") which are not subject to the full regime of the Regulations, but are instead governed by the "Light Touch Regime" contained within Chapter 3, Section 7 of the Regulations (Regulations 74 to 77).

This exercise is being carried out by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (SCW) on behalf of the Commissioner.