As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, the Integrated Care Board, in partnership with Local Authorities, primary and secondary mental health services, the VCSFE and people with lived experience, are required to integrate and increase access to community-based mental health services for adults and older adults.

A proportion of the national transformation funding has been prioritised to invest in contracting with the VCFSE sector. This funding is expected to secure wrap around, intervention- based community support which complements the clinical and social care interventions provided by other partners.

During the last year the community Mental Health Transformation programme has worked to coproduce an integrated model of support for people living with severe mental illness, develop pathways and articulate what interventions are required to support people to live well in their local communities. This work has informed what services are required from the VCSFE as part of the model going forward and a procurement to secure this support for the next 3-5 years will be launched early in 2024.

The timescale required to complete the procurement process and mobilise services means that the new commissioned provision will only be in place from Autumn 2024.

To enable the funding to reach the sector and to ensure delivery of community- based interventions to meet need during 2023/24, it is proposed that a non- recurrent grants scheme is implemented, while work on a longer- term procurement plan takes place.

To facilitate this in a fair and transparent manner, at pace, the ICB has commissioned Spring North, via a three-quote exercise, to work as a VCSFE delivery partner to support us with this process.

The 2023/24 Opportunity has 3 distinct lots;

1. Workforce development (to be announced)
2. VCFSE Sector engagement & Coproduction lead – £50k per place (launched 4^th December 2023)
3. Place based VCFSE grant schemes – small grants of up to £5k, and large grants of up to £75k available (launched 4^th December 2023)