Staffordshire’s County Council and Clinical Commissioning Groups have a shared vision for the development of emotional health and well-being services for children and young people in Staffordshire. This is based on the principles of Thrive and gives emphasis to a preventative, early intervention approach. The vision is ambitious and aims to deliver an accessible and responsive service to the children and young people of our county.

Staffordshire covers a large geographical area and is divided into the 8 districts of Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, South Staffordshire, Stafford, Staffordshire Moorlands and Tamworth.

Service aims are:

— to promote positive emotional health and well-being, whilst offering a self-help and face to face support system to those who require it,

— to enable children and young people to access services at a time and level they feel is appropriate for them,

— build resilience in individuals, peer groups, family units and communities,

— to be inclusive of the looked after children and care leaver cohort within Staffordshire,

— reduce the prevalence of escalating emotional health and well-being issues for children and young people, through prevention and early intervention,

— to work collaboratively with professionals, families and services utilising local/place-based arrangements to ensure a child centred approach to support is a reality, not an aspiration.

The service will offer a flexible approach to meeting the needs of children and young people (CYP) aged 5-18, who have mild to moderate mental health needs. The offer will be one that is made up of following;

— preventative work

—— low level information, advice and guidance;

—— peer support;

—— raising awareness of emotional health and well-being issues within communities, families, peer groups and with individuals;

—— tackling the stigma around mental and emotional health;

—— promotion of new, future emotional health and well-being services whilst utilising existing statutory services that support CYP and families in a variety of ways;

—— effective work with stakeholders to ensure cohesive services.

— self-help via digital support

—— support for young people;

—— self-referral service;

—— online counselling.

— direct support

—— therapeutic offer;

—— wide range of therapies;

—— group support.

—— 1:1 support

—— peer support

The tender will be procured via a competitive dialogue tender process. This will be a 3-stage process:

1) Submission of selection questionnaire;

2) Invitation to participate in dialogue;

3) Invitation to submit final bid – invitation to tender.