NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board Market Testing Opportunity for the future provision of a Children and Young People's Digital Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Support Service

Description

This is a joint project. NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB is acting as the lead contracting authority and is issuing this notice on behalf of NHS Coventry and Warwickshire ICB, as part of joint commissioning arrangements within the Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire (CWHW) ICB Cluster. The CWHW Cluster is seeking initial engagement and feedback from the market to establish potential interest in delivering a consistent digital mental health and emotional wellbeing support offer for children and young people across the Coventry and Warwickshire, and Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB footprints. IMPORTANT NOTE: any dates relating to a future contract notice publication, and any financial values stated in this notice are indicative only, and may be subject to change in any future procurement exercise for the above service. Lot 1: The NHS CWHW ICB Cluster is seeking initial engagement and feedback from the market to establish potential interest in delivering a consistent digital mental health and emotional wellbeing support offer for children and young people across the Coventry and Warwickshire, and Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB footprints. Current digital provision is approaching the end of existing contractual arrangements. This notice provides an opportunity for the NHS CWHW ICB cluster to review the market, test procurement and contracting options, and improve access, quality and outcomes for children, young people, parents and carers ahead of any potential future procurement. The service is intended to complement, not replace, local children and young people's mental health pathways. It is expected to offer a range of evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions, including self-help, advice and guidance, structured support, peer or community support where appropriate, and access to qualified support for those who need it, alongside clear safeguarding arrangements, effective links with local services, and reliable reporting against agreed outcomes. A virtual Market Testing event is taking place at 10am to 11am on Tuesday 1st September 2026 via Microsoft Teams. The purpose of the meeting will be for the NHS CWHW ICB cluster to present the emerging service requirements to interested parties, discuss procurement and contracting options, and receive feedback on the feasibility of the scope and specification of the service. Interested providers will also be able to book a 10 minute session to showcase their existing digital solution on either 1st or 2nd September 2026. Interested providers that are suitably qualified and experienced in delivering these services are requested to respond by 4pm on Monday 17th August 2026. INSTRUCTIONS FOR EXPRESSING INTEREST AND REGISTERING ATTENDANCE To express interest, and to register your attendance at the virtual Market Testing Event, please register via the Atamis e-sourcing portal at the following hyperlink: https://health-family.force.com/s/Welcome Please refer to Atamis Project Reference: 462169. 1. Please go to the Documents Section in Atamis Project Reference: 462169. 2. Please complete the "CWHW ICB CYP Digital MH Service Questions Expressions of Interest Form". This form also allows you to book places at the Online Market Testing Event, and a 10 minute demo slot. 3. Please return your completed form VIA THE ATAMIS MESSAGING SYSTEM by 4pm on Monday 17th August 2026. NB: Details of the service are set out in the draft Service Specification for the CWHW ICB CYP Digital MH Service; this is available to view in the Documents section of the above Atamis project. Please be advised that the draft Service Specification may be subject to change prior to any future Provider Selection Regime process. Should providers have any queries, or experience problems using the Atamis portal, they should contact the Atamis Helpdesk at: Phone: 0800 9956035, E-mail: support-health@atamis.co.uk The ICBs reserve the right to reject expressions of interest that do not come in within the above deadline. Please note that organisations which have expressed an interest will still be required to register for any future procurement and should not rely on their response to this Expression of Interest. The ICBs are not bound to act on any information generated from the questionnaire, and participation does not automatically guarantee any standing with regard to any future procurement process adopted by the ICBs. It should be noted that this is not a procurement exercise at this stage and participating organisations are responsible for their own costs. All details provided by the ICBs are in draft format, and the ICBs reserve the right to change or amend any aspect of the requirement prior to any potential future procurement exercise. At this stage this is an engagement exercise only. This engagement exercise will be operated via electronic means using the internet. Details have made available via documentation and information released on the Atamis portal. No final procurement or contracting model has been agreed at this stage. The ICBs will consider a range of options as part of market testing, which may include contracting the service as a single lot, awarding contracts to multiple providers, or inviting a collaborative bid led by a lead provider with a consortium of bidders. The preferred approach will be informed by market feedback, commissioner requirements, value for money, deliverability, pathway fit and the ability of providers to meet the service specification. There is no fixed view as to what any future service will look like. It would be advisable for providers to collaborate and offer consistency across the Coventry and Warwickshire, and Herefordshire and Worcestershire footprints, to avoid any gaps or duplication in service provision. This notice has been issued subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023, to establish market interest in the services described. Additional information: Further to this market engagement exercise, any future procurement for this service will be advertised in accordance with Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. As current digital provision is approaching the end of existing contractual arrangements, this creates an opportunity to review the market, align provision where appropriate, and improve access, quality and outcomes. The purpose of the service would be to provide children, young people, parents and carers with timely digital mental health and emotional wellbeing support. The aims of the service are to: ● Provide a consistent digital offer across Coventry and Warwickshire, and Herefordshire and Worcestershire. ● Improve access to early help and support for children and young people. ● Maximise reach across age groups, needs, communities and geographies. ● Offer a range of support types and delivery routes, recognising that one model may not meet all needs. ● Improve the quality, completeness and usefulness of outcome reporting. ● Support better links between digital provision and local children and young people's mental health pathways. ● Deliver value for money and make best use of available resources across the cluster. Any provider(s) of a future contract(s) must deliver a fully available digital service for children and young people, and where relevant their parents or carers, suitable for implementation from the agreed contract start date. The service may include web-based, app-based or blended digital access routes. The commissioners are not seeking to develop a new digital product as part of any future procurement. Service providers must be able to submit and flow data successfully to the Mental Health Services Data Set and other national datasets where required, and provide assurance of this.