Clinical Commissioning Groups in South Staffordshire are seeking to procure an ASD diagnostic and intervention service for children and young people within their area.
We are seeking a provider able to provide a high quality, user focussed service that will provide effective diagnostic services in line with the NICE guidelines.
The selected provider will be able to demonstrate an ability to work effectively with other agencies in the delivery of the diagnostic service to ensure the appropriate ‘work up' of information to commence an assessment for ASD. Such agencies will include local community paediatric services, CAMHS, learning disability services and social and education providers. The latter will include schools and special schools. The local authority (Staffordshire County Council) currently provide an Autism Outreach Service to diagnosed children attending local schools hence an effective partnership is required with this service as well as education psychology and other school support services.
The scope of the assessment service will include children and young people with learning disabilities who are suspected as having autism.
Currently there is a high demand for the assessment service but the resources base for this contract has yet to be finalised hence interested parties are asked to consider their ability to deliver up to 600 diagnostic assessments per annum across South Staffordshire. The provider should also be able to deliver a service within the localities of South Staffordshire to reduce travel times for families. It is therefore expected that services would be delivered from at least 3 settings in South Staffordshire.
The provider should be able to offer a range of multi-disciplinary staff to undertake the diagnostic assessments and there should be a high focus on involving the child/family at all stages of the process.
The procurement will also cover the delivery of an intervention service that will be offered to children and young people diagnosed as having ASD (including Aspergers). The range and scope of intervention services will be agreed with the commissioners of the service but are likely to include both group and individual sessions with children and their families. In particular it is anticipated that Introduction to Autism courses would be offered to families in receipt of a recent diagnosis but there will be interventions offered to groups of children and their families regarding specific issues (such as dealing with emotions, adaptive skills). Individual interventions will also be available to families to support the management of behaviour and these approaches will focus on supporting the child within the family to allow them to have a community presence and access mainstream resources and opportunities.
The service will be expected to provide a support service (telephone or web based service) to parents of diagnosed children.
The volume and scale of interventions will be agreed with commissioners based on the available resources and the volume of assessments being undertaken. It is not expected that the provider would offer intensive support programmes in the community but would provide specialist support to other providers in effectively managing risk and allowing children and young people to play an active role in their communities.
The successful provider will have a sound understanding of agreeing and measuring outcomes for children and young people in receipt of interventions.
The service is expected to provide specialist advice and guidance to other professionals involved in joint work with diagnosed children including education services and health providers. A limited amount of training provision will also be required if agreed by the commissioner.
The service provider will seek to avoid the utilisation of medication as part of any intervention programme offered but in exceptional circumstances this may be required hence the ability to prescribe would be advantageous.
Interested providers should have demonstrable experience of delivering an effective ASD care pathway in conjunction with a range of other providers and the ability to effectively engage and empower families.
Expressions of interest are therefore requested from providers with the relevant skills, knowledge and experience to meet the specification for the assessment and intervention service. The geographical scope of the service is that of the 4 CCGs operating in South Staffordshire (i.e. East Staffordshire CCG, South East Staffordshire and Seisdon Peninsula CCG, Cannock Chase CCG and Stafford and Surrounds CCG).
The successful provider will be required to sign the relevant national NHS contract for the service, accepting all terms and conditions.
Bidders are invited to express an interest in providing this service by email to Elaine Butler by Monday 14.10.2013. The following information must be stated in the email:
Organisation Name
Organisation Address
Telephone number
Email Address
Website Address
Organisation Type
Bidders are also required to register on the portal at: https://cmcsu.bravosolution.co.uk (registration and use of the website is free of charge). If your organisation has registered previously, you do not need to re-register.
The services to which this advertisement relates fall within Part B of Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulations. Neither placement of this advertisement nor any other indication shall be taken to mean that the Contracting Authority intends to hold itself bound by any Regulations, save those applicable to Part B services.