Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is the leading provider of services for people of all ages with mental ill-health and learning disabilities in Surrey and North-East Hampshire as well as drug and alcohol services in Surrey.

i-access is the substance misuse service for Surrey, it is part of Surrey and Borders NHS partnership trust (SABP). i-access provides tiers 2, 3 and 4. The service is jointly provided by SABP and Public Health, Surrey County Council under a cooperation agreement. The child and family safeguarding pilot is part of the i-access service.

The subcontractor will work in collaboration with SABP and Public Health. The sub-contractor’s staff will work with SABP staff to deliver the i-access service. They will be based in the SABP i-access bases.

i-access is the drug and alcohol service for Surrey. It is a county wide service delivering tier 2, 3 and 4 substance misuse interventions. i-access is run collaboratively by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust (SABP) and Public Health (PH)/Surrey County Council (SCC). SABP and SCC have entered into a cooperative agreement for the provision of substance misuse services.

Elements of the service provision are being subcontracted by SABP. The provider will be an integrated part of i-access, staff will be based in the i-access teams (3 hubs) and work as part of one service. The sub-contractor will need to be able to work collaboratively and to embrace the culture and ethos of the cooperative agreement which is one of partnership and transparency.

The service provider will deliver efficient and effective evidence-based interventions that meet the needs of service users.In doing so the service must:

— engage and involve service users in a range of interventions according to their identified needs and risks facilitating their involvement i.e. effective information sharing and a joint care planning approach in line with good evidence based practice;

— increase the proportion of service users who successfully complete treatment programmes by providing an end-to-end care co-ordination approach throughout the treatment journey;

— provide a person-centred approach that phases and layers the delivery of specific interventions that are appropriate to service users’ needs and enables their progress and achievement of substantial recovery goals. To refer / signpost to other agencies and providers where appropriate;

— improve health and social functioning by achieving a step-change increase in the numbers of individuals who access treatment rapidly, remain engaged and achieve positive outcomes;

— to plan and run an accredited peer mentoring scheme for the whole of i-access. Peer mentoring is expected to feature strongly in delivery of the service to aid service user involvement;

— SABP i-access senior managers are the lead for safeguarding. The provider will be expected to have a good knowledge and understanding of all aspects of safeguarding and to link in with senior managers appropriately where there are safeguarding issues.

Following the conclusion of the competitive tendering exercise the Trust will then enter into a formal contract with the successful service provider. The i-access contract will be for an initial 4-year period, commencing 1 April 2021 with the option to extend the term for a further 2 x 1-year periods up to an overall maximum term of 6 years from the commencement date. The continuation of the Contract will be subject to the Trust obtaining the required funding and therefore the contract may be terminated at any time should funding not be available. The Trust will give a minimum of 12-months’ notice to terminate the contract.

The family safeguarding contract will be for an initial 2-year period as per the current funding arrangement, at the end of which this contract shall cease unless further funding is offered to the Trust. If the Trust should obtain future funding the contract may, at the discretion of the Trust be extended for the duration of any future funding up to a maximum term of 6 years.