PROC.90.005 Recovery House Including Staffing

This is a 24 hours, 7 day a week Recovery House Facility including staffing. This service relates to the provision of short stay environments for individuals experiencing acute mental health crisis, aged 18+.

Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) and Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust Forward Thinking Birmingham are agreeing a multi-agency collaborative to provide short stay environments for individuals experiencing an acute mental health crisis, aged 18+. Such a facility would provide a viable recovery-based resource for those who may be escalating toward a psychiatric inpatient admission and for those who may be considered for a step-down provision from an acute inpatient bed.

It is intended to support those who would benefit from brief biopsychosocial interventions during short term crisis. The crisis would be viewed as “the moment when the typical activities of the service user’s day break down”.

Commissioners are seeking an organisation that can provide accommodation and a shared staffing model. The Recovery House will be a 24 hours service and needs to be accessible 7 days a week.

The facility must provide a safe environment and support in which service users will receive immediate assistance in identifying the nature of the crisis and how this may be addressed. This will be achieved by using a model of co-production, solution focused and other brief interventions.

The expected duration of a service users stay will be a maximum of 7 nights. There is substantial evidence that demonstrates Recovery houses support inpatient bed capacity, reduce bed days and improve flow.

The Recovery house will be able to feed into this pathway for both service providers, for short term crisis admissions. Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust Forward Thinking are agreeing a multi-agency collaborative to provide a 24 hours, 7 day a week short stay Recovery House Facility including staffing for individuals experiencing an acute mental health crisis, aged 18+.

To ensure compliance with the Trust Standing Financial Instructions and Public Procurement Regulations, the service has been competitively tendered using the Open Procedure via the Trust’s e-tendering portal. This notice is an intention to award a contract under the competitive process under the Provider selection regime to Birmingham Mind which is a new provider for this service.

The contract is planned to commence from July 2025 for Three (3) years (plus extension options for up to Two (2) more years). The anticipated lifetime value of the contract is £5,000,000 over 3 years with the option to extend for up to 2 more years