A new interim management team has been found to run in-patient Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the Bristol area.

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) and The Huntercombe Group (THG) have been nominated to take over the running of the Riverside Unit at Blackberry Hill Hospital in Bristol for 12 months from 1 April 2016. The day-to-day clinical services and operations will be managed by AWP, supported by high level Tier 4 expertise from THG.

NHS England had to urgently find a suitably qualified interim provider after current provider North Bristol Trust decided not to renew its Children’s Community Health Partnership contract, including all tiers of CAMHS, when it ends on 31 March 2016.

The Riverside unit provides what is known as “Tier 4” CAMHS, highly specialist care for the relatively small number of young people with the most serious mental health difficulties in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The interim contract means that young people at the Riverside Unit will continue to be cared for by the same staff in the same place. Staying as NHS employees, existing staff will be transferred to AWP with the same pay and conditions.

NHS England South Assistant Director of Specialised Commissioning, Joe McEvoy, said: “I am delighted to announce the outcome of our procurement that will ensure the service continues to operate with the least disruption to young people and staff.  It also ensures the continued integration of mental health in-patient services for young people and services that support them when they are at home.”

Tier 4 CAMHS is so specialist it is commissioned by NHS England so that patients can access services in different treatment centres across the country. Tiers 1 to 3 of CAMHS, however, are community-based and commissioned separately by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).

Separately to the NHS England process, Bristol CCG, on behalf of North Somerset CCG and South Gloucestershire CCG, has appointed a partnership of Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Sirona Care and Bristol Community Health CIC as preferred interim provider of the tiers 1 to 3  CAMHS in the area.

This means that community and inpatient CAMHS are linked by the same provider, AWP. This arrangement means that the community provision and the inpatient provision will be provided by the same provider and therefore facilitate opportunities to ensure there are integrated care pathways between Tier 3 and 4 CAMHS.

Under NHS England’s new collaborative commissioning arrangements with CCGs, which will allow all commissioners to work much more closely together, the current aim is to jointly undertake a procurement for all tiers of CAMHS to commence from 1st April 2017. This will ensure young people with mental health difficulties receive the most appropriate level of care for their needs at the time when they need it.