East and West Norfolk Community Wellbeing and Crisis Hubs

Description

The East and West Community Wellbeing and Crisis Hubs offer a safe space to get support for mental health, wellbeing and crisis, in the community. They provide warm welcome and supportive staff to offer help, advice, or a listening ear. Provision includes café-style food and drink to purchase; advice and information on local services and support; including mental health and wellbeing; the opportunity to meet other people with experience of mental; ill-health support - from a quick chat over a cup of tea to longer-term support social activities and groups; open access support; and evening mental health crisis support (on referral). The East and West Community Wellbeing and Crisis Hubs provide the following core services from bases in Kings Lynn and Gorleston, serving the population of West Norfolk and Great Yarmouth and Waveney: - Daytime Hub and Community Café/drop-in (10am to 5pm Monday to Sunday) The daytime hubs offer open access drop-in to the communal areas of the hub and the community café. Referrals are self-selecting, but recommendations from other professionals to use the daytime hub and word of mouth are also acceptable. In addition to extensive provider-led mental health and wellbeing provision, a wide range of partner organisations work with Hubs to enable provision and/or access, to an extensive range of VCSE and statutory support, helping to promote health and wellbeing, and address wider determinants of mental ill-health. Evening Crisis Hub (6pm to 10pm Monday to Sunday) The service will offer low-level UEC pathway intervention designed to support admission avoidance for lower severity cases, providing brief interventions for a few hours, and supporting onward access to a structured programme of support delivered by each Hub provider, or onward referral to additional mental health support, as appropriate. Intensive Support Programme (10am to 5pm Monday to Sunday) Available to people who have experienced a crisis and used the evening hub, and/or professionals who are concerned someone is at risk of experiencing a crisis episode. Lot 1: Aims service • Deliver a day and evening hubs model in Kings Lynn and Gorleston that sits at the heart of the community and operates a safe and friendly environment. There will be very limited evidence of an association with statutory services and as such the environment, and everything associated with it, shall be psychologically informed - in line with Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) principles. • Offer daytime support for a range of mental health problems and for episodes of mental distress, to be based in a static facility, providing advice and information. • Operate a café function for hub attendees to support social and therapeutic aims. • Operate a community café to support those who feel socially isolated and will aim to help de-stigmatise mental health and mental distress. The cafe should be open to the public and be aimed at the whole population. • Offer sanctuary for people experiencing mental ill-health and mental distress. It will include a calm and safe space, providing practical and emotional support, which can be used as an alternative to admission if appropriate. • Integrate with the First response Service (FRS), which is a triage telephone line that will gate keep all crisis referrals to the hub both day and night. • Integrate with the existing support telephone line to support people who present as being in crisis and help to de-escalate. • Offer a six to eight week course of support, with a combination of advice, support and information, as well as group support. This will include light-touch follow up support for an agreed period of time. Objectives of the service • Develop digital solutions to support and enhance the operation of all aspects of the hub. • Support the development of a Partnership Board to oversee the strategic direction of development of hubs across Norfolk and Waveney • Adopt an integrative approach with primary care and work closely with GP practices to ensure awareness of the hub is maximised. Service description/care pathway The hub model is not expected to provide any clinical oversight or interventions. These functions will be provided by the local Mental Health provider. Daytime Hub: • The hubs will offer day time support for a range of mental health problems and for episodes of mental distress. It will be based in a static facility, providing a range of activities, advice, information and support. It will use a navigation and enabling approach, to empower people to stay well in their community and at home. • The hubs will work closely with all relevant system partners to support individuals and develop the offer of support, including (but not limited to) statutory & VCSE, health & social care. • The model will be based on a peer support approach rather than a solely statutory environment, and will employ people with lived experience alongside, or as support staff. • The hubs will serve the population of Norfolk and Waveney, with a predominant focus on West Norfolk • People can be referred or signposted to the hub by health and social care professionals and other relevant agencies - based on agreed acceptance criteria. • Advice and support will be available for people to access, both through technology and staff contact. A fundamental function of the hub will be to connect people with community assets. It is envisaged that system partners, such as the Job Centre, housing officers, benefits advisors and many more, could provide on-site sessions for people who require advice. • Emotional support will be available if a hub user requests it. This support will be proportionate to the presenting need and will not create dependency. Cafés: • The cafés will offer opportunities for social interactions and to build the confidence and expand the skills of people who have experience of mental ill-health and mental distress, including formal certification recognising their development • The cafés will comply with all industry standard health, safety and hygiene standards and legislation. • The cafés provision shall be operated in a sustainable way. For the public / commercial opportunities: [where a the location and premises allow for it, i.e. where there is not one already established] • The hubs will establish a community cafés to support those who feel distressed and/or socially isolated and will aim to help de-stigmatise mental health for those people using this feature. • The cafes shall be open to the public and aimed at the whole population. • The cafés will operate a commercial approach and shall reinvest any profits into the development of the hub. • The cafés will also offer voluntary and substantive employment for people who have experience of mental ill-health and mental distress. • The cafés will comply with all industry standard health, safety and hygiene standards and legislation. • The café provision shall be operated in a sustainable way. • The commercial model of the cafés will be developed within the parameters of the hub's Mission Statement. The pricing structure will be overseen and developed by the Partnership Board and in partnership with commissioners. Evening Crisis Husb: • The evening hubs will offer sanctuary for people experiencing mental ill-health and mental distress. It will offer a calm and safe space, providing practical and emotional support, which can be used as an alternative to admission if appropriate. • De-escalate users in crisis and seek support from other services in dealing with critical incidents and provide support in accessing other support services. • The hubs will serve the population of Norfolk and Waveney, with a predominant focus on West Norfolk • The hubs will be aimed at people aged 18 years and over. • People can be referred and/or signposted to the hub by health and social care professionals and other relevant agencies. • An appropriate assessment of need will take place for all people on arrival. • An appropriate plan of care for the evening will be agreed with the person at assessment. Expectations will be managed so that all people will go home when the hub closes for the evening. A short-term care plan will be agreed to cover the period immediately following the person's use of the evening hubs. • The evening hubs will work closely with the local Mental Health provider that will provide clinical support, advice and oversight. • The evening hubs will work closely with 111, Police, Ambulance and A&E Intensive Support Package The intensive support package (ISP) will be available of all people who use the evening crisis hubs. It will also be available for professionals who are concerned about the wellbeing of someone in their care. Access via this route will be determined between professionals and be based on the needs of the service user and what outcomes they can expect to achieve by using the ISP. The ISP will be a curriculum of activities and approaches designed to improve the wellbeing and resilience of those people using it. Service users accessing the ISP will likely have experienced a crisis episode, or be in danger of experiencing an episode, and the ISP should be primarily focused on supporting these service users to stabilise their situation. It should then offer agree a bespoke support plan, based on the curriculum, which helps the service user to achieve their goals and outcomes. The ISP shall be offered in addition to any services the individual users may already be accessing. Therefore, the ISP should take into account these services, such as, mental health services, and where appropriate work closely with these services to offer the most suitable support package. The ISP will be a rehabilitation for service users immediately post-crisis or to offset a potential crisis, providing the user with the skills and confidence to avoid crisis in the future. Features of the ISP shall include: • Restricted to people who have used the hub in crisis, the crisis house (being developed separately to this process) or those at risk of going into crisis. • Offer a 6-8 week course of support, with a combination of advice, support and information, as well as group support. This will include light-touch follow up support for an agreed period of time. • An appropriate assessment of need will take place. • Face to face 1:1 support will be offered where it is appropriate for an individual service user's needs. • The package will include a range of activities and support Operational Hours The operating hours of the hubs will reflect the needs of the East and West Norfolk populations. It will, as a minimum, operate between the hours of 12pm - 10pm, incorporating the daytime and evening elements. Using other best practice examples, the indicative opening times will be as follows: Opening Times Days Open Hubs (East and West) Elements 12pm - 6pm Monday - Sunday Daytime open access drop-in and cafes 12pm - 6pm Monday - Sunday Daytime intensive support package offer 7pm - 10pm Monday - Sunday Evening Crisis Hubs The contract will run from March 1st 2026 to March 31st 2027 The total contract value is £485,402 (ex. VAT). NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board are awarding the contract named within this notice due to an urgent circumstance which is outlined within the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. The ICB may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the contract may be varied as allowable in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.