Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust wishes to develop a partnership with a suitably experienced and qualified provider for a Targeted (Tier 2) Primary Mental Health Early Intervention Service. This service will play a key role in our ‘Whole System’ approach to supporting and improving the emotional well-being and mental health of children and young people in Cumbria.

The aim of the Primary Mental Health Early Intervention Service, (PMHEIS) is that it forms an effective and key part of a wider Whole System Approach to supporting the emotional well-being and Mental Health of all children and young people living in Cumbria. The service will embrace a shared vision of an integrated, responsive, equitable and accessible service for children and young people from the age of 0-18 years (normally, 18th birthday with flexibility as required up to their 19th birthday).

The service is commissioned for children and young people who present with issues/symptoms of a mild to moderate degree of difficulty and require a multi-disciplinary approach that offers a mix of professional skills, inclusive of training for families and universal practitioners and the identification of more severe or complex needs requiring more specialist involvement.

Whilst PMHEIS will function as the Tier 2 element of the Cumbria CAMHS via a single point of access (Appendix 1 Cumbria SPA) and act as the interface between universal 1st contact services for children and families (with particular emphasis on Primary Care, Early Help Services and Education) and Specialist CAMHS in Cumbria, the function of this service is not to act as a screening service for Specialist CAMHS referrals and should be conceptualised in terms of function as ‘bottom-up’ as opposed to ‘top-down.’ The primary objective of this service is to provide effective early targeted intervention by:

— indirect support,

— direct support.