Somerset ICB Colleague Support Line

Somerset Integrated Care Board are going to award a contract to Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to provide a Colleague Support Line for our Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub. The Somerset Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub is mandated by NHS England and works in partnership with all health and care organisations across Somerset to help build resilience and support positive health and wellbeing of all health and care staff during these difficult times. It includes the Somerset Emotional Wellbeing website and HSJ-award shortlisted SEW podcast as well as the Colleague Support Line. The Colleague Support Line, which is open to all health and care staff from all organisations across Somerset, provides rapid clinical assessment and, where appropriate, immediate assistance to callers. It provides one front door for all health and care staff in need of mental health and wellbeing support to access, and callers are triaged, risk assessed and signposted/referred on to other services if required. The service is expected to commence 1st of April 2023 until the 31st March 2024 and will include options to extend where funding allows. The annual contract value is circa £180,000. The services are deemed to be subject to the light touch regime of current procurement legislation and governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The Commissioner has voluntarily advertised this notice of intention to award this contract to reach as wide an audience as possible and to promote transparency and in line with regulation 32(2)(b)(ii). Given all of the above, the Commissioner is firmly of the view that competition is absent for technical reasons as the work is mandated by NHS England to be carried by a Healthcare Organisation. As such, NHS Somerset will be contracting with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to continue to provide the Colleague Support Line Service across the Somerset Integrated Care System.