NHS Southend Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS Castle Point and Rochford Clinical Commissioning Group and Southend Borough Council ('the Contracting Authorities') invite suitably qualified service providers to attend a Market Engagement Event informing the market of the CCG's intentions.

The intention is to formally procure this new community resource to be operational from September 2019 for a period of four and a half years plus the option to extend for two years.

There are two elements to this offer, both recovery focused.

Both elements will address mental health inequalities by working with more complex people within the system and enabling/empowering people to create their own peer opportunities as well as sign posting people to the right community or clinical support.

The first element is a mental health wellbeing café - a physical space for people to meet for both formal and informal peer support; that will create work opportunities; and promote participation in the local community.

The resource should aim to support people to achieve personalised meaningful outcomes, as part of an integrated, locality-based approach to understanding and meeting the needs of the whole person.

The second element to the offer is an out-of-hours community based 'crisis café'.

The Crisis Café is intended to provide out-of-hours mental health support with the aims of: Preventing escalation of mental health problems and thereby avoid a mental health crisis; Preventing unnecessary referrals to secondary mental health services, A&E departments and other emergency and out-of-hours services; Improving mental health and wellbeing; Increasing independence and self-management; and reducing isolation.

This should be an accessible, non-stigmatizing and recovery focused service that can sit alongside the clinical services.

The resource will be for people experiencing mental health crisis, supporting them to discuss the nature of their current crisis, their strengths and coping skills the person might use to decrease their distress and promote their wellbeing.

This community-based crisis support offer would benefit from access to local resource directories and advice/signposting to access services.

The crisis café element will also require a degree of risk assessment/management and active liaison with statutory Services, particularly Crisis Response Teams, when clinical risk requires.

The primary aim for both elements of the service is to improve the mental health and wellbeing of adults in South East Essex.

Recovery will enable people with mental health support needs to engage in their local communities and take opportunities such as voluntary work, employment and learning; as well as develop strategies to cope with everyday life.