East and West Suffolk Community Wellbeing and Crisis Hubs
NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARDEstimated Value
Up to £413,866
Deadline
Not specified
Published
25 March 2026
Type
services
Overview
The East and West Suffolk Community Wellbeing and Crisis Hubs offer a safe space to get support for mental health, wellbeing and crisis, in the community. They provide warm welcome and supportive staff to offer help, advice, or a listening ear.
Provision includes café-style food and drink to purchase; advice and information on local services and support; including mental health and wellbeing; the opportunity to meet other people. Offering a quick chat over a cup of tea to longer-term support social activities and groups; open access support; and evening mental health crisis support (on referral).
The East and West Community Wellbeing and Crisis Hubs provide the following core services from bases in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds, serving the population of East and West Suffolk. Daytime Hub and Community Café/drop-in (10am to 5pm Monday to Sunday) The daytime hubs offer open access drop-in to the communal areas of the hub and the community café.
Key points
- Establish a Daytime Wellbeing Hub and Evening Safe Haven model that sits at the heart of the community and operates a safe and friendly environment. There will be very limited evidence of an association with statutory services and as such the environment, and everything associated with it, shall be psychologically informed - in line with Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) principles and following the THRIVE model.1 However, the prospective provider to clearly define the clinical links with the statutory provider.
- Offer day-time support for a range of mental health problems and for episodes of mental distress, to be based in a static facility, providing advice and information.
- Offer an evening support for people who are in crisis (self-defined) and an alternative to admission to statutory services.
- Use a social navigation and enabling approach, to empower people to stay well in their community and at home, rather than employing a more traditional 'problem-solving' approach.
- Offer sanctuary for people experiencing mental ill-health and mental distress. It will include a calm and safe space, providing practical and emotional support, which can be used as an alternative to admission if appropriate.
- Use existing Crisis response triage telephone lines that will receive all referrals to the Safe Haven in the evening.
- To work in partnership with the local Mental Health NHS provider (Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust) to develop protocols and a standard operating procedure, with the guarantee that the Mental Health provider will provide clinical oversight of the hub model, offering advice, support, and formal triage and assessment.
- Link to the existing support services; Suffolk Community Connector Network, Suffolk Night Owls and the Crisis Response Service support telephone line to support people who present as being in crisis and help to de-escalate.
- Create links to other day time services for people with complex emotional needs and provide space and venues in rural locations through a hub and spoke model (daytime only).
- Create a seamless peer support model working alongside the local Mental Health NHS provider (Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust) to provide employment and volunteering opportunities. Service description/care pathway Daytime Hubs (10-4pm)
- The hubs will offer day-time support for a range of mental health problems and for episodes of mental distress for people aged 18+. It will be based in a static facility, providing a range of activities, advice, information and support. It will use a navigation and enabling approach, to empower people to stay well in their community and at home.
- The model will be based on a peer support approach rather than a solely statutory environment, and will employ people with lived experience alongside, or as support staff. The hub will serve the population of East and West Suffolk and will be based in two central locations in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich *(subject to building availability).
- People can be referred or signposted to the hubs by health and social care professionals and other relevant agencies - based on agreed acceptance criteria.
- Advice and support will be available for people to access both through technology and staff contact. A fundamental function of the hubs will be to connect people with community assets. It is envisaged that system partners, such as the Job Centre, housing officers, benefits advisors and many more, could provide on-site sessions for people who require advice.
- Emotional support will be available if a hub user requests it. This support will be proportionate to the presenting need and will not create dependency.
- The Hubs will also offer a next day support service for people who have accessed the Safe Haven the previous evening, providing continuous wrap around support and ensuring that the techniques and planning established is supporting the individual Safe Havens (Evening support) 6pm-10pm The Safe Havens will offer sanctuary for people experiencing mental ill-health and mental distress. They will offer a calm and safe space, providing practical and emotional support, which can be used as an alternative to admission if appropriate. Page 9 of 19 Service Specification There will be two hubs which will serve the population of East and West Suffolk and will be based in Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds *subject to building availability. The hubs will be aimed at people aged 18+ Key requirements are:
- De-escalate users in crisis and seek support from other services in dealing with critical incidents and provide support in accessing other support services.
- People can only be referred to the hubs by health and social care professionals and other relevant agencies through the Crisis Response telephone service*.2
- An appropriate assessment of need will take place for all people on arrival.
- An appropriate plan of care for the evening will be agreed with the person at assessment. Expectations will be managed so that all people will go home when the hub closes for the evening. A short-term care plan will be agreed to cover the period immediately following the person's use of the Safe Haven.
- An appointment will be made for the following day at the Wellbeing Hubs to review the plans made the previous night.
- The Safe Havens will work in partnership through a standard operating procedure with the local Mental Health NHS provider (Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust) who will provide clinical support, advice and oversight to on an ongoing basis.
- The Safe Havens will work closely with 111, Police, Ambulance and A&E to support people, where the hub is a more appropriate venue.
- Upon discharge the person will be give the extended Night Owls support line number to ensure there is a safety net until the Wellbeing hubs meeting the next day.
- The Safe Havens should be co-located with the Wellbeing hubs to provide continuity of support and become a familiar environment to the people who access support NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board are awarding the contract named within this notice due to an urgent circumstance which is outlined within the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. The ICB may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the contract may be varied as allowable in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.
Regulations cited
- Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023
Additional details
Referrals range from drop-ins to professional referral. In addition to extensive provider-led mental health and wellbeing provision, a wide range of partner organisations work with Hubs to enable provision and/or access, to an extensive range of VCSE and statutory support and helping to promote health and wellbeing. Evening Crisis Hub (6pm to 10pm Monday to Sunday) The service will offer low-level UEC pathway intervention designed to support admission avoidance for lower severity cases, providing brief interventions for a few hours, and supporting onward access to a structured programme of support delivered by each Hub provider, or onward referral to additional mental health support, as appropriate.
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Award Details
Suffolk Mind
£413,866
Likely incumbents
Suppliers who won similar work from this buyer in the last 5 years.
- 1
Suffolk County Council
£820,560
total awarded
- 2
Swan Surgery
1 contract wonlatest 30 Mar 2026£14m
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- 3
Norfolk and Waveney Mind
1 contract wonlatest 24 Mar 2026£485,402
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Suffolk County Council is the most likely incumbent based on recency and category match. To win, bidders typically need a clearly differentiated proposition or a price advantage.
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NHS SUFFOLK AND NORTH EAST ESSEX INTEGRATED CARE BOARDKey Dates
Published
25 March 2026
Submission deadline
Not specified
Notice type
award
Source
find a tender
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