Staffordshire’s County Council and Clinical Commissioning Groups have a shared vision for the development of emotional health and wellbeing 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 eight (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 wellbeing, 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 wellbeing 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 wellbeing issues within communities, families, peer groups and with individuals,

—— tackling the stigma around mental and emotional health,

—— promotion of new, future emotional health and wellbeing 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 three-stage process:

1) Submission of selection questionnaire;

2) Invitation to participate in dialogue;

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