News: Mental Health Carer Support Service
Lancashire County Council are inviting suitably experienced organisations to deliver a Countywide Mental Health Carer Support Service.
This service is funded via a combination of funding from Lancashire County Council (LCC) and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for Fylde and Wyre (Formerly NHS Primary Care Trust) to provide support to carers and families of people with mental health needs.
The current service provides regular telephone contact to carers and 1:1 support, offering advice, information and signposting to further services and support. The service also provides support to carers who are in a crisis, for example, when the service user's mental health deteriorates. The current service has staff that facilitates and attend 8 support groups that meet at least monthly across the county. In some areas Ward 'surgeries' are held for carers at mental health inpatient units.
The annual contract value for the new service is £236,253.
The contracts will be tendered in Lots in relation to splitting the service in terms of geographical coverage:
Lot 1: North Lancashire (£52,634)
Lot 2: Central Lancashire (£88,071)
Lot 3: East Lancashire (£95,548)
Lot 4: Countywide (£236,253)
Suppliers can bid for any or all Lots. Sub-contracting arrangements will not be an option.
It is the Council's intention that the contract awarded will start on the 1st April 2014 and continue for 2 years with an option to extend for a further two years (one year at a time).
Further information is available at the Council's e-tendering website at www.lancashire.gov.uk/tendering
Providers wishing to tender for this service are required to complete a tender questionnaire via the e-tendering website.
Providers who are already registered on the e-tendering website will be able to access the questionnaire by logging in to the website. Providers who are not currently registered on the e-tendering website will need to go to the above web address and register as a new user.
Questionnaires must be completed and returned electronically via the e-tendering website by 10am on the 21st February 2014.