Mental Health Outreach and Social Inclusion Contract

This contract is for Outreach Support and Social Inclusion for People with Mental Health needs, providing a range of options to support people to gain and retain the skills necessary to live as independently as possible and promote social inclusion.

It incorporates services delivered under the following Lots:

Lot 1 - Life skills

Lot 2 - Crisis support

Lot 3 - Rehabilitation and Recovery

Opportunity to tender begins 22nd January 2025 on Open www.open-uk.org

The Successful Provider will be expected to deliver the following support within this Lot, although the list is not exhaustive, and the Provider will be expected to support each Person in line with their individual needs and preferences:. The level and intensity of the support will depend on individual needs of each person, and may include other forms of support, not listed below, to ensure each person's needs are met in a person-centered and flexible way:

 Independent Living Skills - enable the Person to improve their skills to manage their day-to-day activities such as making telephone calls, dealing with correspondence, attending appointments and form-filling, keeping their home clean and dealing with laundry, managing shopping; encourage, motivate and support the Person to prepare and cook healthy meals safely; offer information, advice, and guidance on maintaining a personal hygiene routine.

 Managing mental and physical health and self-care - understand the individual nature of each Person's experience of mental health and support the person to co-create a wellness recovery action plan (WRAP) or similar document, to outline their lived experiences as well as 'early warning signs' of relapse and how they would like professionals to respond to a mental health crisis.

 Motivate the person to engage in activities and strategies to promote mental wellbeing - wide range of recommendations including increasing and decreasing social stimulation, mindfulness, distraction and grounding techniques, promoting sleep hygiene, promoting self-care routines, promoting medication concordance.

 Budgeting, managing finances, tenancy and benefits - support the Person to take increasing responsibility for their budgeting, to ensure they live within their budget and advising them on how to manage their finances on a day-to-day basis, support them to manage their tenancy by abiding by the tenancy conditions and paying the rent, assist and enable the Person to claim and receive eligible benefits and deal with relevant agencies.

 Social skills and social contacts - encourage and support the Person to develop social skills including but not limited to positive communication, social perceptiveness, conflict management, and anger management, encourage and help to motivate the Person to develop social contacts to reduce social isolation

 Social inclusion and social navigation - support to access local community and make use of the community-based assets, expanding the Person's connectivity and building natural support networks and peer support.

 Positive relationships - promote the importance of positive and healthy friendships, romantic, sexual, professional, and familial relationships; equipping he Person with the skills to effectively manage these and keep safe in a variety of settings.

 Travel training - Travel training and guidance to improve confidence to use public transport.

 Access to other services - Support to engage with and access other services and/or work in partnership with other agencies, in agreement with the individual, as part of the support planning process. This should be in culturally sensitive way to empower the Person to overcome perceived barriers and access mainstream health, treatment and recovery, housing, DWP, social care services and so on.

 Employment, volunteering, education and training courses - encourage and support the Person to pursue and access employment, education and training courses. Anyone looking to pursue employability pathways further should be referred to Work & Thrive Newcastle, the city's employment support partnership, led by Newcastle Council.

 Leisure and participation activities - Offer practical support and encouragement to make use of leisure activities, engage the Person to place their voice, aspirations, and interests at the heart of service management and delivery.

 Working in collaboration with the person around safeguarding concerns - involving the person in this process other than in exceptional situations.