Health and Justice Pathways

Essex County Council (ECC) in partnership with NHS England, the 7 local Clinical Commissioning Groups and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex are seeking bidders to deliver an expert integrated health service to improve health and justice pathways in Essex which incorporates: Liaison and Diversion Service - the service seeks to work with individuals who are in police custody and for whom the police suspect there may be underlying health issues (mostly Mental Health, Substance Misuse, Learning Disabilities and Autism). Individuals are screened and/or assessed and referred for ongoing support as appropriate.

The Street Triage Service - this service works with individuals who have not been arrested but where the Police have been called out (by the public) due to concerns of erratic or other such behaviour. Individuals are screened and assessed and referred to more appropriate healthcare support if needed.

This service currently largely responds to issues around mental ill health, but as part of the new procurement, this will be expanded to other vulnerabilities. Police Custody Healthcare - addresses the health needs of individuals in police custody and obtains forensic samples and assesses fitness to be detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.

The service is aimed to support better outcomes, reduce duplication, improve community cohesion & social inclusion by reducing the re-offending rates, create safer communities and better health outcomes for vulnerable groups. The service is being procured as a single service to cover the whole of Essex, including Southend & Thurrock.

Other contracting authorities in areas bordering Essex may wish to commission their services which are similar and/or complementary to the services included in the Integrated Health & Justice service contract where cross-border delivery of services would improve the service offering and delivery to the public. It is proposed that there is no maximum limit of bidders specified to be shortlisted at the Standard selection Questionnaire (SSQ) stage to be invited to tender.

ECC will be holding a bidders information event on 11 September 2017 am, to express an interest in this event please request a place via the Bip Delta sourcing portal in the tender box for the opportunity, Access Code: VD663BXFY4. Additional information: The procurement will be conducted via the Council's e-tendering portal, BiP Delta, located via: https:// www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/VD663BXFY4 Published 30.08.2017.

Section II.2.3: Place of performance during the life of the contract is predominantly the county of Essex. However, during the life of the contract, other contracting authorities in areas bordering Essex may wish to commission their services which are similar and/or complementary to the services included in the Integrated Health & Justice service contract where cross-border delivery of services would improve the service offering and delivery to the public.

Sections II.1.5 and II.2.6: The estimated contract values provided in this notice are inclusive of the potential option to extend and addition of services during the life of the contract. The maximum annual contract value which will apply as an affordability envelope for the purposes of bidding is £3.831m per annum.

Any bids received in excess of such affordability envelopes will be excluded. Commissioners may wish to expand services during the lifetime of the contract potentially resulting in a significantly wider network of integrated services being delivered than set out in the Services Specification at the time of contract award.

Such modifications will be contemplated where such services are similar/complementary to the services already included in the Integrated Health and Justice model at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services provided and/or commissioned by other ECC departments and/or other contracting authorities.

ECC and any contracting authority under the Integrated Health & Justice contract may also add grant funding to the contract where such grants are awarded to the contracting authority and relate to the services and outcomes required under the Services Specification. The Integrated Health & Justice Contract may therefore collectively have a contract value of up to £48m over the 7 years depending on the further addition and integration of services.

Commissioners do not guarantee or grant any exclusivity in relation to any such services during the life of the contract. Section II.2.5 Award criteria: The contract will be awarded on the basis of a 60:40 price:quality weighting using the published evaluation criteria in the tender documents.

Minimum score thresholds will also be used to ensure that only bids which meet minimum quality standards will be considered. Section IV.1.1) Note that this procurement falls within 'social and other specific services' in Schedule 3 of the